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VERAGE AMER1 



THEC 



Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt 
From a photograph by Levey-Dhurmcr 



Ikni 



AVERAGE AMERICANS 



BY 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL, U. S. A. 



ILLUSTRATED 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
NEW YORK AND LONDON 

Zbc IKnfcfeerbocfeer press 

1919 






Copyright, 1919 

BY 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



W \\ -4 1919 



S3\ 







©CI. A5 3 6 41 2 



Go 

THE OFFICERS AND MEN 
OF THE 26th INFANTRY 



PREFACE 

A LL our lives my father treated his sons 
and daughters as companions. When 
we were not with him he wrote to us constantly. 
Everything that we did we discussed with 
him whenever it was possible. All his 
cnildren tried to live up to his principles. 
In the paragraphs from his letters below, he 
speaks often of the citizens of this country 
as "our people." It is for all these, equally 
with us, that the messages are intended. 

"New Year's greetings to you! This may 
or may not be, on the whole, a happy New 
Year — almost certainly it will be in part at 
least a New Year of sorrow — but at least you 
and your brothers will be upborne by the self- 
reliant pride coming from having played 
well and manfully a man's part when the 
great crisis came, the great crisis that 'sifted 



vi Preface 

out men's souls' and winnowed the chaff 
from the grain." — January i, igi8. 

"Large masses of people still vaguely feel 
that somehow I can say something which will 
avoid all criticism of the government and yet 
make the government instantly remedy every- 
thing that is wrong ; whereas in reality nothing 
now counts except the actual doing of the 
work and that I am allowed to have no part 
in. Generals Wood and Crowder have been 
denied the chance to render service; appoint- 
ments are made primarily on grounds of sen- 
iority, which in war time is much like choos- 
ing Poets Laureate on the same grounds." — 
August 2j, 1 917. 

"At last, after seven months, we are, like 
Mr. Snodgrass, 'going to begin.' The Na- 
tional Guard regiments are just beginning to 
start for their camps, and within the next 
two weeks I should say that most of them 
would have started; and by the first of Sep- 
tember I believe that the first of the National 



Preface vii 

Army will begin to assemble in their camps. 
. . . I do nothing. Now and then, when I 
can't help myself, I speak, for it is necessary 
to offset in some measure the talk of the fools, 
traitors, pro-Germans, and pacifists; but really 
what we need against these is action, and that 
only the government can take. Words count 
for but little when the ' drumming guns ' have 
been waked." — August 23, 1917. 

"The regular officers are fine fellows, but 
for any serious work we should eliminate 
two thirds of the older men and a quarter of 
the younger men, and use the remainder as a 
nucleus for, say, three times their number of 
civilian officers. Except with a comparatively 
small number, too long a stay in our army — 
with its peculiar limitations — produces a rigid- 
ity of mind that refuses to face the actual 
conditions of modern warfare. But the won- 
der is that our army and navy have been 
able to survive in any shape after five 
years of Baker and Daniels." — September 17, 
1917. 



viii Preface 

"Along many lines of preparation the work 
here is now going fairly fast — not much of a 
eulogy when we are in the ninth month of the 
war. But there cannot be much speed when 
military efficiency is subordinated to selfish per- 
sonal politics, the gratification of malice, and 
sheer wooden-headed folly." — October 14, 1917. 

"The socialist vote [in the New York 
mayoralty election] was rather ominous. 
Still, on the whole, it was only about one fifth 
of the total vote. It included the extreme 
pacifist crowd, as well as the vicious red-flag 
men, and masses of poor, ignorant people 
who, for example, would say. 'He'll give us 
five-cent milk, ' which he could have given as 
readily as he could have given the moon." — 
November 7, 1917- 

"Well, it's dreadful to have those we love 
go to the front; but it is even worse when 
they are not allowed to go to the front." — 
Letter to Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., November 
11, 1917. 



Preface ix 

"Yesterday mother and I motored down 
to the draft camp at Yaphank. First, I was 
immensely pleased with the type of the men, 
and the officers are just as good as the average 
of young West Pointers. I believe that in 
the end that army there will be as fine a 
body of fighting men as any nation in the world 
could desire to see under its banners. But 
there is still, after nearly three months that 
they have been called out, some shortage in 
warm clothes; there are modern rifles for 
only one man in six; there are only about 
four guns to an artillery brigade." — November 
iq, 1917. 

"Of course, the root of our trouble lies in 
our government's attitude during the two and 
one half years preceding our entry into the 
war, and its refusal now to make the matter 
one in which all good citizens can join without 
regard to party, and paying heed only to the 
larger interests of the country and of man- 
kind at large. ... I now strike hands with 
any one who is sound on Americanism and on 



x Preface 

speeding up the war and putting it through 
to the finish; but we ought to take heed of 
our industrial and social matters too." — 
Thanksgiving Day, iQiy. 

"There is little I can do here, except to try 
to speed up the war; the failure to begin work 
on the cargo ships with the utmost energy- 
ten months ago was a grave misfortune." — 
December 23, 1917. 

"The work of preparation here goes on 
slowly. I do my best to speed it up; but I 
can only talk or write ; and it is only the doers 
who really count. The trouble is fundamen- 
tal and twofold. The administration has no 
conception of war needs or what war means; 
and the American army has been so handled 
in time of peace that the bulk of the men high 
up were sure to break down in the event of 
war." — January 6, 1918. 

"Over here Senator Chamberlain's com- 
mittee has forced some real improvements in 
the work of the war department and the 



Preface xi 

shipping board. It is of course a wicked 
thing that a year was wasted in delay and in- 
efficiency. Substantially we are, as regards 
the war, repeating what was done in 1812-15; 
there was then a complete breakdown in 
the governmental work due to the pacifist 
theories which had previously obtained, to in- 
efficiency in the public servants at Washing- 
ton, and above all to the absolute failure to 
prepare in advance. Yet there was much 
individual energy, resourcefulness, and cour- 
age; much work by good shipwrights; fine 
fighting of an individual and non-coherent 
kind by ship captains and by occasional 
generals." — March 10, igi8. 

' ' How I hate making speeches at such time 
as this, with you boys all at the front! And 
I am not sure they do much good. But some- 
one has to try to get things hurried up." — 
March 14, igi8. 

"Wood testified fearlessly before the Senate 
committee, and the country has been impressed 



xii Preface 

and shocked by his telling (what of course all 
well informed people already knew) that we 
had none of our own airplanes or field guns 
and very few of our own machine guns at 
the front." — March ji, igi8. 

"The great German drive has partially 
awakened our people to the knowledge that 
we really are in a war. They still tend to 
complacency about the 'enormous work that 
has been accomplished' — in building home 
camps and the like — but there really is an 
effort being made to hurry troops over, and 
tardily, to hasten the building of ships, guns, 
and airplanes. 

"My own unimportant activities are, of 
course, steadily directed toward endeavor- 
ing to speed up the war, by heartily backing 
everything that is done zealously and effi- 
ciently, and by calling sharp attention to luke- 
warmness and inefficiency when they become 
so marked as to be dangerous." — April 7, igi8. 

"Of course, we are gravely concerned over 
the way the British have been pushed back; 



Preface 



Xlll 



and our people are really concerned over the 
fact that after over a year of formal participa- 
tion in the war our army overseas is too small 
to be of great use." — April 14, igi8. 

"The administration never moves unless 
it is forced by public pressure and public pres- 
sure can as a rule only be obtained by showing 
the public that we have failed in doing some- 
thing we should do; for as long as the public 
is fatuously content, the administration lies 
back and does nothing." — April 20, igi8. 

"The people who wish me to write for them 
are divided between the desire to have me 
speak out boldly, and the desire to have me 
say nothing that will offend anybody — and 
cannot realize that the two desires are incom- 
patible." — April 28, iqi8. 

"I spoke at Springfield to audiences whose 
enthusiastic reception of warlike doctrine 
showed the steady progress of our people in 
understanding what the war means." — May 5, 
1918. 



xiv Preface 

"It is well to have had happiness, to have 
achieved the great ends of life, when one 
must walk boldly and warily close to death." 
— May 12, igi8. 

"We are really sending over large numbers 
of men now, and the shipbuilding program is 
being rushed; but the situation as regards 
field guns, machine guns, and airplanes con- 
tinues very bad. The administration never 
takes a step in advance until literally flailed 
into it; and the entire cuckoo population of 
the 'don't criticize the President' type play 
into the hands of the pro-Germans, pacifists, 
and Hearst people, so that a premium is put 
on our delay and inefficiency." — May 12, igi8. 

"The only way I can help in speeding up 
the war is by jarring loose our governmental 
and popular conceit and complacency. I 
point out our shortcomings with unsparing 
directness and lash the boasting and the 
grandiloquent prophecies. 

"The trouble is that our people are ignorant 



Preface xv 

of the situation and that most of the leaders 
fear to tell the truth about conditions. I 
only wish I carried more weight. Yet I 
think our people are hardening in their deter- 
mination to win the war, and are beginning 
to ask for results." — May 23, iqi8. 

"The war temper of the country is steadily 
hardening and so is the feeling against all 
the pro-German agitators at home." — June 2, 
1918. 

"In every speech I devote a little time to the 
1 cut out the boasting plea.' Of course I really 
do think that in spite of our governmental 
shortcomings we are developing our strength." 
— June 26, iqi8. 

"On the Fourth of July I went down to 
Passaic, where three quarters of the people 
are of foreign parentage, the mayor himself 
being of German ancestry. I talked straight- 
out Americanism, of course, which was most 
enthusiastically received; the mayor's two 
sons have enlisted in the navy, and one has 



xvi Preface 

been promoted to being ensign. The war 
spirit of the people is steadily rising." — July 
7, igi8. 

"I, of course, absolutely agree with you as 
to the tremendous difficulties and possible 
far-reaching changes we shall have to face 
after this war. Either fool bourbonism or fool 
radicalism may land us unpleasantly near — 
say halfway toward — the position in which 
Russia has been landed by the alternation 
between Romanoffism and Bolshevism." — 
July 75, iqi8. 

"It is very bitter to me that all of you, the 
young, should be facing death while I sit in 
ease and safety." — July 21, igi8. 

"I keep pegging away in the effort to hurry 
forward our work. We now have enough 
troops in France to make us a ponderable 
element in the situation." — August 4, iqi8. 

"On Labor Day I spoke at Newburgh ship- 
yard and spoke plainly of the labor slackers 



Preface xvii 

and the unions that encourage them; and on 
Lafayette Day, at the City Hall, I spoke of 
the kind of peace we ought to have, and nailed 
to the mast the flag of Nationalism as against 
Internationalism." — September g, iqi8. 

"The Germans have been given a staggering 
blow, and while I hope for peace by Xmas, I 
believe we should speed everything to the 
limit on the assumption that next year will 
be the crucial year." — October 20, iqi8. 

"During the last week Wilson has been 
adroitly endeavoring to get the Allies into 
the stage of note writing and peace discussion 
with an only partially beaten and entirely un- 
conquered Germany. I have been backing 
up the men like Lodge who have given utter- 
ance to the undoubtedly strong, but not neces- 
sarily steady, American demand for uncondi- 
tional surrender. It is dreadful to have my 
sons face danger; but unless we put this war 
through, their sons may have to face worse danger 
— and their daughters also.' ' — October 27, ipiS. 

Oyster Bay, August, 19 19. 



CONTENTS 






PAGE 


Preface ...... 


V 


CHAPTER 




I. — Boyhood Recollections . 


1 


II. — Sins of the Fathers 


21 


III. — Overseas ..... 


• 33 


IV. — Training in France 


. 48 


V. — Life in an Army Area 


. 66 


VI. — Early Days in the Trenches . 


. 82 


VII. — Montdidier .... 


120 


VIII. — Soissons 


162 


IX. — St. Mihiel and the Argonne . 


. 183 


X. — The Last Battle 


. 201 


XI. — Up the Moselle and into Conquei 


tED 


Germany .... 


. 217 


XII. — Afterwards .... 


• 234 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt 

From a portrait by Levey-Dhurmer 

Frontispiece 

Colonel Roosevelt in America to Lieu- 
tenant Colonel Roosevelt in France . 20 

A Group of Officers of the ist Battalion, 
26th Infantry 24 

Haudivillers, April, 19 17 

Brigadier General Frank A. Parker, Lieu- 
tenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, 
and Mrs. Roosevelt at Romagne . -38 

"Chow" 58 

Drawn by Captain W. J. Aylward, A. E. F., 1918 

Before the Offensive .... 78 

Drawn by Captain W. J. Aylward, A. E. F. 

The Signal Corps at Work ... 86 

Drawn by Captain Harry E. Townsend, A. E. F. 

A Trench Raid 130 

Drawn by Captain George Harding, A. E. F., Montfaucon 
xxi 



xxii Illustrations 

PAGE 

An Air Raid 172 

Drawn by Captain George Harding, A. E. F. August, 1918 

The Rhine at Coblenz .... 226 

Drawn by Captain Ernest Peixotto, A. E. F. 

Three Theodore Roosevelts . . . 240 

Copyright, Walter S. Shinn 



AVERAGE AMERICANS 



Average Americans 



CHAPTER I 

BOYHOOD RECOLLECTIONS 

'"Tis education forms the common mind, — 
Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." 

Alexander Pope. 

CROM the time when we were very little 
boys we were always interested in mili- 
tary preparedness. My father believed very 
strongly in the necessity of each boy being 
able and willing not only to look out for him- 
self but to look out for those near and dear 
to him. This gospel was preached to us all 
from the time we were very, very small. A 
story, told in the family of an incident which 
ha'ppened long before I can remember, illus- 
trated this. Father told me one day always 
to be willing to fight anyone who insulted 



2 Average Americans 

me. Shortly after this wails of grief arose 
from the nursery. Mother ran upstairs and 
found my little brother Kermit howling in a 
corner. When she demanded an explanation 
I told her that he had insulted me by taking 
away some of my blocks, so I had hit him on 
the head with a mechanical rabbit. 

Our little boy rights were discussed in de- 
tail with father. Although he insisted on 
the willingness to fight, he was the first to 
object to and punish anything that resem- 
bled bullying. We always told him every- 
thing, as we knew he would give us a real 
and sympathetic interest. 

Funny incidents of these early combats 
stick in my mind. One day one of my 
brothers came home from school very proud. 
He said he had had a fight with a boy. When 
asked how the fight resulted he said he had 
won by kicking the boy in the windpipe. 
Further investigation developed the fact that 
the windpipe was the pit of the stomach. My 
brother felt that it must be the windpipe, 
because when you kicked someone there he 



Boyhood Recollections 3 

lost his breath. I can remember father to 
this day explaining that no matter how effec- 
tive this method of attack was it was not con- 
sidered sportsmanlike to kick. 

Father and mother believed in robust 
righteousness. In the stories and poems 
that they read us they always bore this in 
mind. Pilgrim's Progress and The Battle 
Hymn of the Republic we knew when we were 
very young. When father was dressing for 
dinner he used to teach us poetry. I can 
remember memorizing all the most stirring 
parts of Longfellow's Saga of King Olaf, 
Sheridan's Ride, and the Sinking of the Cum- 
berland. The gallant incidents in history 
were told us in such a way that we never 
forgot them. In Washington, when father 
was civil service commissioner, I often walked 
to the office with him. On the way down he 
would talk history to me — not the dry history 
of dates and charters, but the history where 
you yourself in your imagination could as- 
sume the r61e of the principal actors, as every 
well-constructed boy wishes to do when in- 



4 Average Americans 

terested. During every battle we would 
stop and father would draw out the full plan 
in the dust in the gutter with the tip of his 
umbrella. 

When very little we saw a great many men 
serving in both the army and navy. My 
father did not wish us to enter either of these 
services, because he felt that there was so 
much to be done from a civilian standpoint 
in this country. However, we were taught 
to regard the services, as the quaint phrase- 
ology of the Court Martial Manual puts it, 
as the "honorable profession of arms." We 
were constantly listening to discussions on 
military matters, and there was always at 
least one service rifle in the house. 

We spent our summers at Oyster Bay. 
There, in addition to our family, were three 
other families of little Roosevelts. We were 
all taught out-of-door life. We spent our 
days riding and shooting, wandering through 
the woods, and playing out-of-door games. 
Underlying all this was father's desire to have 
all of us children grow up manly and clean- 



Boyhood Recollections 5 

minded, with not only the desire but the ability 
to play our part at the country's need. 

Father himself was our companion when- 
ever he could get away from his work. Many 
times he camped out with us on Lloyd's Neck, 
the only "grown-up" of the party. We al- 
ways regarded him as a great asset at times 
like these. He could think up more delight- 
ful things to do than we could in a "month of 
Sundays." In the evening, when the bacon 
that sizzled in the frying-pan had been eaten, 
we gathered round the fire. The wind soughed 
through the marsh grass, the waves rippled 
against the shore, and father told us stories. 
Of the children who composed these picnics, 
two died in service in this war, two were 
wounded, and all but one volunteered, regard- 
less of age, at the outbreak of hostilities. 

When we were all still little tadpoles, 
father went to the war with Spain. We were 
too little, of course, to appreciate anything 
except the glamour. When he decided to go, 
almost all his friends and advisers told him 
he was making a mistake. Indeed, I think my 



6 Average Americans 

mother was the only one who felt he was 
doing right. In talking it over afterward, 
when I had grown much older, father ex- 
plained to me that in preaching self-defense 
and willingness to fight for a proper cause, he 
could not be effective if he refused to go when 
the opportunity came, and urged that "it 
was different" in his case. He often said, 
"Ted, I would much rather explain why I 
went to the war than why I did not." 

At school and at college father encouraged 
us to take part in the games and sports. None 
of us were really good athletes — father him- 
self was not — but we all put into it all we had. 
He was just as much interested in hearing 
what we had done on the second football team 
or class crew as if we had been varsity stars. 

He always preached to us one maxim in 
particular : take all legitimate chances in your 
favor when going into a contest. He used 
to enforce this by telling us of a man with 
whom he had once been hunting. The man 
was naturally a better walker than father. 
Father selected his shoes with great care. 



Boyhood Recollections 7 

The man did not. After the first few days 
father was always able to outwalk and out- 
hunt him just on this account. Father always 
went over his equipment with the greatest 
care before going on a trip, and this sort of 
thoroughness was imbued in all his sons. 

Long before the European war had broken 
over the world, father would discuss with us 
military training and the necessity for every 
man being able to take his part. 

I can remember him saying to me, "Ted, 
every man should defend his country. It 
should not be a matter of choice, it should 
be a matter of law. Taxes are levied by law. 
They are not optional. It is not permitted 
for a man to say that it is against his religious 
beliefs to pay taxes, or that he feels that it is 
an abrogation of his own personal freedom. 
The blood tax is more important than the 
dollar tax. It should not therefore be a 
voluntary contribution, but should be levied 
on all alike." 

Father was much interested in General 
Wood's camps for the training of the younger 



8 Average Americans 

boys and was heartily in sympathy with them. 
Both Archie and Quentin attended them. 
Quentin had a badly strained back at the 
time, but that did not keep him from going. 

At the sinking of the Lusitania a very keen 
realization of the gravity of the situation was 
evident all over the country. A number of 
younger men between the ages of twenty-one 
and thirty-five met together to talk things 
over. In this group were Grenville Clarke, 
Philip A. Carroll, Elihu Root, Jr., Cornelius 
W. Wickersham, J. Lloyd Derby, Kenneth 
P. Budd, and Delancy K. Jay. They felt 
that it was only a question of time until we 
would be called to the colors, and realized 
most keenly the fact that it is one thing to be 
willing and quite another to be able to take 
your part. They felt, as this war has shown, 
the lamentable injustice and grievous loss 
that is entailed by putting against men who 
are trained in the business of fighting un- 
trained men who, no matter how good their 
spirit and how great their courage, do not 
know the game. 



Boyhood Recollections 9 

The outcome of the conference of these men 
was the decision to ask General Wood if it 
would be possible for him to hold a training 
camp, for men up to forty -five years, similar to 
those held for boys. With the usual patriot- 
ism that characterizes him, General Wood 
said at once that he would hold the camp even 
if they were able to get only twenty-five men 
to attend. In the beginning, converts came 
slowly, but after a campaign of personal solici- 
tation, in which members of the original group 
went individually to various cities in the vicin- 
ity of New York, the movement got under 
way with such success that the first so-called 
"Business Men's Plattsburg Camp" num- 
bered about one thousand, and was immedi- 
ately followed by another nearly as large. 

At this time the average man did not know 
what military training and service meant. 
The camp was composed of men of all types 
and all ages. Many of them, too old for active 
service, had come as an earnest of their belief 
and through the desire to teach by their ac- 
tions as well as by their preachings. Robert 



io Average Americans 

Bacon and John Purroy Mitchel attended this 
camp, both of them men whose memory will 
always be treasured by those who were for- 
tunate enough to know them. 

We took it all very seriously. At one end 
of the company street you would see two 
prominent middle-aged business men trying 
to do the manual of arms properly, rain drip- 
ping off them, their faces set like the day of 
judgment, crowned with grizzled hair. At 
the other would be Arthur Woods, the Police 
Commissioner of New York, "boning" the 
infantry drill regulations. George Wharton 
Pepper was promoted to sergeant, and was as 
proud of it as of any of his achievements in 
civil life. Bishop Perry of Rhode Island was 
named as color sergeant. 

Men who went to this Plattsburg camp 
had to pay their own money in order to try 
to fit themselves to serve their country. No 
more undemocratic arrangement could have 
been made for it placed beyond the power of 
the men of small means, who form the body of 
the country, to get in advance the knowledge 



Boyhood Recollections n 

necessary to act as an officer. Yet this was 
the only course open to us. In the ensuing 
year these camps spread over the country, and 
through them passed many thousands of men. 
Far over and above their value from the stand- 
point of military training was their educational 
value in national duty. A large percentage 
of the commissioned officers on our country's 
roll of honor attended the Plattsburg camps. 
These camps in themselves furnished the 
nucleus for the selection of the commissioned 
personnel of the national army, and furnished, 
furthermore, the system by which the great 
mass of our junior officers were chosen and 
educated. Yet the movement was launched, 
not with the backing and help of the national 
administration, but rather in spite of the 
national administration. No official repre- 
senting the administration visited these early 
camps. Solely by private endeavor, there- 
fore, arose the system of selection of officers 
which enabled the army in this war, more 
than any army this country has had in the 
past, to choose the men for commissions with 



i2 Average Americans 



& 



a keen regard for their ability, with a truer 
democracy and less of political influence. On 
account of this movement the town of Platts- 
burg is known from one coast to the other. 

During this first camp my father came up 
to address the men. Up to this time, although 
he had spoken on universal military training, 
it had been considered as such an unthinkable 
program that no one had paid any attention. 
Two or three times people have asked me 
when my father first became convinced of 
the necessity for universal training and serv- 
ice in this nation. They have always been 
greatly surprised when I have referred them 
back to a message to Congress written during 
his first term as President, in which he suggested 
that the Swiss system of training would be an 
advisable one to adopt in the United States. 
Many years before this he had directed N. 
Carey Sawyer to investigate and report on 
Switzerland's military policy. So little were 
people concerned with it at that time that 
no comment of any sort was caused by either 
act. 



Boyhood Recollections 13 

The evening of my father's arrival at Platts- 
burg an orderly came and directed me to 
report at headquarters, where my father was 
sitting in conference. 

"Ted, I have decided to make a speech 
to-morrow in favor of universal service," 
father said to me. "My good friends here, 
who believe in it as much as I do, feel that 
the time is not ripe, that the country would 
not understand it, and that it will merely pro- 
voke a storm of adverse criticism. I have told 
them that although the country may criti- 
cize, and although unquestionably a storm of 
attacks will be directed against me, it must 
be done, because the country must begin 
thinking on the subject." 

He spoke next day before the assembled 
students. The ring of serious khaki-clad men 
seated on the parade ground, father speaking 
very earnestly in the center, speaking until 
after dark, when he had to finish by a lantern, 
is a clear picture to me. 

To many of them this exposition was the 
first they had ever heard on the subject. 






14 Average Americans 

Most of them up to this time had not been 
interested in it, and had felt vaguely that com- 
pulsory military training and service was 
synonymous with the German system and 
was not democratic. When France and Swit- 
zerland were brought to their attention as 
democracies, as efficient democracies, and as 
countries which had a thoroughly developed 
system of universal military training, their 
eyes were opened and they saw the matter in 
a new light. From this camp, directed in a 
large part by my father's and General Wood's 
inspiration and ideas, grew a nation-wide 
group of young men who felt the seriousness 
of the situation, young men who realized we 
must take our part and who wished, as one 
of my private soldiers put it to me, "At least 
to have a show for their white alley" when 
the war broke. 

During the ensuing winter and summer in 
many parts of the country enthusiasts were 
working, and many more camps were founded 
and carried to a successful completion. Rec- 
ognition of a mild sort was obtained from 



Boyhood Recollections 15 

the National Government. Not recognition 
which permitted men to go as men should go 
in a democracy, to learn to serve their country, 
as pupils of the country, at the country's 
expense, but at least as men doing something 
which was not unrecognized and frowned on 
by their government. 

Toward the winter of 191 7 father talked 
ever increasingly to all of us concerning his 
chance of being permitted to take a division 
or unit of some sort to Europe. When war 
was declared he took this matter up directly 
with the President. What happened is now 
history. He took his disappointment as he 
took many other disappointments in his life. 
Often after he had worked with all that was 
in him for something, when all that could be 
done was done, he would say, "We have done 
all we can; the result is now on the knees of 
the gods." 

Meanwhile he was constantly interested 
in and constantly talked with all of us about 
what we were doing. At last, two months 
after we severed diplomatic relations, training 



1 6 Average Americans 

camps for officers were called into being with 
enormous waste and inefficiency, and we am- 
bled slowly toward the training of an army 
and its commanding personnel. 

All of us except my brother Quentin left 
for Plattsburg. Quentin, on the day before 
diplomatic relations were severed, had tele- 
phoned from college to father to say he would 
go into the air service, where his real ability 
as a mechanician stood him in good stead. Of 
the other three, Kermit had had the least 
training from a purely military standpoint^ 
having been in South America during most 
of the time when we had been working on 
the "Plattsburg movement." His ability and 
experience, however, in other ways were 
greater, as in his hunting trips in Africa and 
South America he had handled bodies of men 
in dangerous situations. Archie had attended 
practically all the camps, and was naturally a 
fine leader of men and a boy of great daring. 

At Plattsburg, Archie and I were fortunate 
enough to be put in the same company. Dur- 
ing the major part of the month we were there 



Boyhood Recollections 17 

we were in charge of the company. Our duty 
was to instruct potential officers in the art of 
war which we ourselves did not know. We 
spent hours wig-wagging and semaphoring. 
Neither of these methods of signaling did I 
ever see used in action. 

In our "conference" periods the floor was 
opened for questions. The conversation 
would be something like this: "What is light 
artillery?" "Light artillery is the lighter 
branch of the artillery." — "That is all very 
well, but define it further." Deep thought. 
"It is the artillery carried by men and not 
by horses." One man asked in all solemnity 
once," Does blood rust steel more than water? " 
It is not necessary to add that he never became 
an officer. 

We worked like nailers, but were always 
watching for the word that troops were to be 
sent across. To all of us, from the beginning, 
it was not a question of deciding whether we 
should go or not. We had been brought up 
with the idea that, deplorable as war was, the 
only way when it broke was to go. The only 



1 8 Average Americans 

way to keep peace, a righteous peace, was to 
be prepared and willing to fight. A splendid 
example of a fine family record is given by 
Governor Manning's family, of South Caro- 
lina : seven sons, all in service, and one paying 
the supreme sacrifice. 

"If we had a trained army like the Swiss, 
Germany would never dare commit any of- 
fenses against us, and, furthermore, I believe 
it highly possible that the entire war might 
have been avoided," was a statement often 
made to me by father at the beginning of 
the war. 

At the end of the first three weeks we heard 
rumors that a small expeditionary force was 
to be sent over immediately. We telephoned 
father at Oyster Bay and asked him if he could 
help us get attached to this expeditionary force. 
He said he would try, and succeeded in so far 
as Archie and I were concerned, as we already 
had commissions in the officers' reserve corps. 
We offered to go in the ranks, but General 
Pershing said we would be of more value in 
the grades for which we held commissions. 



Boyhood Recollections 19 

Our excitement was intense when one day in 
an official envelope from Washington we re- 
ceived a communication, "Subject — Foreign 
Service." The communication was headed 
"Confidential," so we were forced to keep all 
our jubilation to ourselves. Some ten days 
after we received another communication, 
"Subject — Orders," and were directed to re- 
port to the commanding general, port of 
embarkation, New York, "confidentially by 
wire," at what date we would be ready to 
start. 

We both felt this was not the most expedi- 
tious way to proceed, but we obeyed orders 
and telegraphed. We supplemented this, how- 
ever, by taking the next train and report- 
ing in person at the same time the telegram 
arrived, in case they could not decode our 
message. General Franklin Bell was the com- 
manding general, and he very kindly helped 
us get off at once, and we left on the liner 
Chicago for Bordeaux on June 18th. 

Our last few days in this country we spent 
with the family. Archie and I went with our 



20 Average Americans 

wives to Oyster Bay, where father, mother, 
and Quentin were. My wife even then an- 
nounced her intention of going to Europe in 
some auxiliary branch, but she promised me 
she would not start without my permission. 
The promise was evidently made in the Pick- 
wickian sense, as when I cabled her from 
Europe not to come the answer that I got was 
the announcement of her arrival in Paris. 
There were six of our immediate family in the 
American expeditionary forces — my wife, one 
brother-in-law, Richard Derby, and we four 
brothers. Father, busy as he was, during the 
entire time we were abroad wrote to each of 
us weekly, and, when he physically could, in 
his own hand. 




c 



& 



^ 



V 3 







- u 

-J o 
I- ne 






? Jv<J"4« 






\ 



CHAPTER II 

SINS OF THE FATHERS 

"Sons of the sheltered city — 

Unmade, unhandled, unmeet — 
Ye pushed them raw to the battle 

As ye picked them raw from the street. 
And what did ye look, they should compass? 

Warcraft learned in a breath, 
Knowledge unto occasion 
At the first far view of death? " 

Kipling. 

\ A7HILE we were personally working at 
Plattsburg the national administration, 
after a meandering course, in which much of 
the motion was retrograde, had finally decided 
that to fight a war in France it was necessary 
to send troops to that part of the world. Out 
of this determination Pershing's force grew. 

Investigation of the condition of our mili- 
tary establishment indicated that we had 
virtually nothing available. The best that 



22 Average Americans 

could be done in the way of an expeditionary 
force was to group two regiments of marines 
and four regular regiments together and send 
them to Europe as the First Division. So 
little attention and thought had been given 
to military matters that when the First Divi- 
sion was originally grouped it consisted of 
three brigades, not two. These brigades con- 
sisted of the Fifth and Sixth Marines, Twenty- 
sixth and Twenty-eighth Infantry, and the 
Sixteenth and Eighteenth Infantry. In the 
regiments themselves things were in the same 
chaotic condition. Battalions contained three 
companies of infantry and one machine-gun 
company each. This was an eleventh-hour 
change from the old system of four companies 
of infantry, to which we returned later in the 
year. We had, furthermore, up to this time, 
by our tables of organization, companies of 152 
men. These companies were raised to 200 
men, and still later became 250. 

As a matter of fact, the strength of these 
companies at the declaration of war was some- 
where around sixty. The 140 additional were 



Sins of the Fathers 23 

obtained by getting a percentage by transfer 
from other infantry regiments, and filling in 
the balance with raw recruits who had just 
volunteered for service. 

My own regiment, the Twenty-sixth In- 
fantry, entrained early in June at San Benito, 
Texas, and came to the port of embarkation, 
New York City. The trip always stands out 
in my mind, although I did not join the regi- 
ment until after it had arrived in Europe, 
because all through the two years of war I was 
pestered by a paper which kept constantly 
turning up concerning some $100 worth of 
ham and cheese that was supposed to have 
been eaten by the men of the Twenty-sixth 
Infantry as they passed through Houston. 
No one was ever able to furnish me with any 
information as to it, but in the best approved 
military style the communication kept circu- 
lating to and fro, indorsement after indorse- 
ment being added, until, when I last saw it, 
January, 19 19, after the war was finished, 
there were some twenty-eight series of remarks, 
and no one was any the wiser. 



24 Average Americans 

A story that always appealed to me was 
told me by one of my officers, of the time when 
the troop train was lying in the Jersey marshes 
waiting to go on board ship. A very good 
officer, Arnold by name, had command of one 
of the companies of the Twenty-sixth Infantry. 
A number of lieutenants were sent from the 
training camps to join the First Division. The 
military knowledge of the lieutenants con- 
sisted in the main of a month at Plattsburg 
at their own expense, and a month for which 
the government paid. The lieutenants, after 
getting to New York, had their uniforms 
pressed and cleaned and their shoes beauti- 
fully polished, feeling that at least they would 
look the part. They went out to join the 
troops, who were lying in the cars, hot, dirty 
and uncomfortable, after traveling for four 
days. Arnold was sitting with his company, 
his blouse off, unshaven, with his feet on the 
seat in front of him. One of the nice young 
lieutenants came in to report to him looking, 
as the lieutenant himself told me afterward, 
like a fashionable clothes advertisement, and 



erage 



1 Lt. Eixar II. < 

2 Lt. George Jaci 

3 Capt. Amiel Frev 

4 Lt. G rover P. Gather 

5 Lr. Charles H. Weaver 

6 Lt. Wesley Freml 

7 LT. JAMES M. Bak„; 



killed May 2\ 

I, 

27, 'i8 

" " 28, 'IS 

wounded 

killed June 20, '18 

gassed 



8 Lt. Roland W. Estey 

Major Theodouk Roo^vei i worn.,. 
i" Lt. B. Vann 
fi LT. George P. &Ufe&N killed Juno,, ',s 

12 Lt. Tuve J. Plodex wounded 

13 Lt. Rexie E. Gilliam wounded 

14 Lt. John P. Gaim wounded 
ft Lt. Lewis Tii.lmax 

16 Lt. Percy E. Le : : n uomided 

wounded, 

'1. 2, 'IN 



17 Lt. Brown Lewis 

[8 Capt. Hamilton K. Poster 

to Lt. Paul R. Caritheks 

20 Lt. M. Morris Axdrews 

2i Lt. William C. Dab.\ 

22 Lt. Donald H. Grant 
G\rT. E. P. Morgan 

24 Lt. Dennis H. Shili.ex 

25 Lt. Harry Dillon 

26 Lt. Charles Ridgely 

27 Lt. Joseph P. Card 

2s Lt. Stewart A. Baxter 

29 Li. Thomas D. Amory 

30 Lt. Thomas B. Cornell 



killed Oct. 2, '18 
wound 



wounded 



wounded 

killed Oct. 4, 'i,s 



wounded 

killed Oct. 3, '18 




Id — 

I I 

•O 
ti. 3 
O <J 



Sins of the Fathers 25 

knowing about as much about military matters 
as a canary bird. 

Arnold looked at him in a weary way, shook 
his head sadly and remarked to the officer 
beside him, "We have only ourselves to blame 
for it." Indeed, we were to blame for condi- 
tions, and such of us as were fortunate enough 
to see service in Europe had the sins of our 
unpreparedness brought before us in the most 
glaring light. 

Just how much training and experience were 
of value was everywhere evident. In my 
opinion, all divisions sent over by this country 
were approximately equal in intelligence and 
courage. There was, however, the greatest 
difference between the veteran divisions and 
those which had just arrived. Each division, 
after being given the same amount of training 
and fighting, would show up much the same, 
but put a division which had been fighting 
for six months alongside of one that had just 
arrived, and in every detail you could see the 
difference. The men of the newly arrived di- 
vision were as courageous as the men of the 



26 Average Americans 

old division. Their intelligence was as good, 
but they did not know the small things which 
come only with training and experience, and 
which, in a close battle, make the difference 
between victory and defeat, the difference 
between needless sacrifice and the sacrifice 
which brings results. 

A great friend of mine, Colonel Frederick 
Palmer, put this to me very clearly. He was 
observing the action of our troops in the Ar- 
gonne and came on a young lieutenant with 
a platoon of infantry. The lieutenant was 
fidgeting and highly nervous. When Palmer 
came up he said, "Sir, there is a machine gun 
on that hill. I don't know whether I should 
attack it or whether I should wait until the 
troops on the right and left arrive and force 
it out. I don't know whether it is killing my 
men to no purpose whatever to advance. I 
don't know what to do. I am not afraid. 
My men are not afraid." 

This man belonged to one of the newly 
arrived divisions. Given the experience, he 
would have known exactly what to do. If he 



Sins of the Fathers 27 

had been a man of an older division and had 
seen sufficient service he would have been doing 
what was necessary when Colonel Palmer 
arrived. 

The little tricks which come only with 
soldiering and training, which do not appear 
in the accounts of the battles and are never 
found in the citations for valor, are those 
which make the great difference. For exam- 
ple, Napoleon has said that an army travels 
on its stomach. It is often quoted and rarely 
understood, yet nothing is more true. The 
men have had a hard day's fighting. They 
are wet, they are cold, they have marched for 
a week, mostly at night, and are worn out. 
Can you get the food forward to them? Can 
you get the food to them hot? If you can 
get hot food forward to them you have in- 
creased the fighting efficiency of these troops 
thirty per cent. 

Experienced troops get this food forward. 
A machine working on past experience knows 
exactly what to do. The supply trains keep 
track of their advance units and follow closely 



28 Average Americans 

in their rear. During the engagement the 
supply officers are planning where to put their 
rolling kitchens and what routes can be used 
to get the supplies forward. Meanwhile the 
echelons of supply in the rear are acting in 
the same manner. One does not find in the 
drill-book that the way to keep coffee and 
slum hot after it has left the rolling kitchens 
is to take out the boilers with the food in them, 
wrap these boilers in old blankets, put them 
on the two-wheeled machine-gun carts, which 
can go nearly anywhere, and work forward to 
the troops in this way. This is just one in- 
stance, one trick of the trade. It is something 
that only training and experience can supply, 
and yet it is of most vital importance. I 
have known divisions to help feed the more 
recently arrived divisions on their right and 
left, when all have had the same facilities to 
start with. I have known new troops, fight- 
ing by an older division, to be forty hours 
without food when the men of the older divi- 
sion had been eating every day. 

Right in the ranks of a regiment you could 



Sins of the Fathers 29 

see the difference made by training and expe- 
rience. Look at a trained man alongside of 
a new recruit just arrived for replacement. 
The trained man, at the end of the day's fight- 
ing, will fix himself up a funk hole where he 
will be reasonably safe from shell fragments, 
will cover himself with a blanket, and will get 
some sleep. The recruit will expose himself 
unnecessarily, will be continuously uncomfort- 
able, and will not know how to take advantage 
of whatever opportunity might arise to make 
himself more comfortable. The result is that 
the value of the former is much greater from 
a military standpoint, and the latter runs a 
far greater risk physically from all standpoints. 
Moreover, when the test comes, as it generally 
does, not in the beginning of the battle, but 
toward the bitter end, when every last ounce 
that a man has in him is being called on, the 
untrained man is not so apt to have the 
necessary vitality left to do his work. 

Our equipment, for the same reason, during 
the early days of the war was most imprac- 
ticable. A notable example of this was the 



30 Average Americans 

so-termed "iron ration" carried on the men's 
backs. The meat component of this ration 
was bacon. In certain types of fighting, those 
in which our army had been principally en- 
gaged, this may have been best, but for the 
work in Europe, it was absolutely impracti- 
cable. To begin with, bacon encourages 
thirst, and thirst, where troops are fighting in 
many of the districts in France, is almost 
impossible to satisfy. A canteen of water a 
day for each man was all it was possible to 
provide. Furthermore, bacon has to be 
cooked, and this again is often impracticable. 
About a year after the beginning of the war, 
some of the older divisions adopted tinned 
beef, which went among the men under the 
euphonious name of "monkey meat." 

To the average person in this country these 
things are not evident. They read of battles, 
they read of the courage of the men, of the 
casualties, of the glory. They do not appre- 
ciate the unnecessary sacrifices and the un- 
necessary deaths and hardships entailed on us 
by our policies. 



Sins of the Fathers 31 

It is all very well for someone comfortably 
ensconced in his swivel chair in Washington 
to issue the statement that he glories in the 
fact that we went into this war unprepared. 
It may be glorious for him, but it is not glori- 
ous for those who fight the war, for those who 
pay the price. The clap-trap statesmen of 
this type should be forced to go themselves or 
at least have their sons, as guarantee of their 
good faith, join the fighting forces. Needless 
to say, none of them did. 

Except for one instance, I do not believe 
there is a single male member of the families 
of the administration who felt that his duty 
called him to be where the fighting was, a 
single male member who heard a gun fired in 
anger. I have heard some of these estimable 
gentlemen say they considered it improper 
to use any influence to get to the front much 
though they desired to do so. This type of 
observation is hypocritical. No doubt the 
men who gave their lives, their eyes, their 
arms, or their legs would feel deeply grieved 
to be robbed of this privilege. 



32 Average Americans 

I have quoted above my father's statement 
that he would rather have explained why he 
went to war than why he did not, for the bene- 
fit of these gentlemen. I should think they 
would rather explain why they used their 
influence to be where the danger was than 
why they did not. As my father wrote me 
in June, 191 8: "When the trumpet sounds 
for Armageddon, only those win the undying 
honor and glory who stand where the danger 
is sorest." 



CHAPTER III 

OVERSEAS 

"Behind him lay the gray Azores, 
Behind the gates of Hercules, 
Before him not the ghosts of shores 
Before him only shoreless seas." 

Joaquin Miller. 

J\ /I Y brother and I sailed from New York 
for Bordeaux on June 18, 1917. One 
little incident of the voyage always stands out 
in my mind. As we were leaving the harbor, 
the decks crowded with passengers, everyone 
keyed up to a high state of excitement, our 
flag was lowered for some reason. While 
being lowered it blew from the halyards and 
fell into the water, and as it fell one could 
hear everyone who saw it catch his breath, 
like a great sob. 

The passenger list was polyglot. French 
returning from missions to the United States, 
3 33 



34 Average Americans 

Red Cross workers, doctors, ambulance driv- 
ers, and a few casual officers. We spent our 
time trying to improve our French to such an 
extent that we could understand or be under- 
stood when speaking it with others than Ameri- 
cans. Our teacher was Felix, a chauffeur. 
He had already served in the artillery in the 
French army, finally finishing the war as a 
captain in the same branch of the service in 
the United States army. 

We touched the shore of France toward the 
end of June and, passing a few outgoing ships 
and a couple of torpedoed vessels, steamed 
slowly up the broad, tranquil estuary of the 
Garonne. In the town of Bordeaux all the 
inhabitants were greatly excited about Les 
Americaines. We were the first they had seen 
since the news had reached France that we 
were sending troops, and as we drove through 
the multi-colored market the old crones would 
get up and cackle their approval. 

To the average Frenchman who had always 
been accustomed to a sound scheme of pre- 
paredness and trained men who could go to 



Overseas 35 

the colors for immediate service, we were 
taken to be simply the first contingent of an 
enormous army which would follow without 
interruption. The poor people were bitterly 
disappointed when they found that the hand- 
ful of untrained men alluded to by our papers 
in this country as ' ' the splendid little regular 
army" represented all that we had available 
in the United States, and that ten months 
would pass before a really appreciable number 
of troops would arrive. 

From Bordeaux we went by train to Paris. 
In the train the same interest in and excite- 
ment over us continued. The compartment 
was full of French soldiers, who asked us all 
about our plans, the number of our troops and 
when they would arrive. Outside it was a 
beautiful day, and the green, well-cultivated 
fields and picturesque, quiet villages made it 
hard to realize we were really in France, 
where the greatest war in history was being 
fought. 

On reaching Paris we reported to General 
Pershing. He asked us what duty we wished. 



36 Average Americans 

We both replied, service with troops. He as- 
signed my brother at once to the Sixteenth 
Infantry, and ordered me to go with the ad- 
vance billeting detail to the Gondecourt area, 
where our troops were to train. 

Meanwhile the convoyed ships containing 
the troops had arrived at St. Nazaire. On 
the way over officers and men had tried to do 
what they could to prepare themselves. One 
of the officers told me he spent his time learn- 
ing the rules of land warfare for civilized 
nations as agreed on by the Hague tribunal. 
Like the dodo, the mammoth, and interna- 
tional law, these rules had long since become 
extinct. 

From St. Nazaire a battalion of the Six- 
teenth Infantry went to Paris and paraded 
on the Fourth of July. The population went 
crazy over them. Cheering crowds lined the 
streets, flowers were thrown at them, and I 
think the men felt that France and war were 
not so bad after all. As a side light on our 
efficiency in this parade the troops were 
marched in column of squads because the 



Overseas 37 

men were so green that the officers were afraid 
to adopt any formation where it was necessary 
to keep a longer line properly dressed. 

Meanwhile three officers and I had left 
Paris and gone to Gondecourt. The officers 
were General (then Colonel) McAlexander, 
who since made a splendid record for himself 
when the Third Division turned the German 
offensive of July 15, 19 18, east of Chateau 
Thierry ; General (then Major) Leslie McNair, 
afterward head of the artillery department of 
the training section; and Colonel Porter, of 
the medical corps. We knew nothing about 
billeting. The sum total of my knowledge 
was a hazy idea that it meant putting the men 
in spare beds in a town and that it was pro- 
hibited by the Constitution of the United 
States. 

Toward evening we arrived at the little 
French village of Gondecourt. The streets 
were decorated with flowers, and groups of 
little French children ran to and fro shouting 
Vive les A mericaines ! We were met by French 
officers and taken to the inn, a charming little 



38 Average Americans 

brownstone building, where French officers, 
soldiers and civilians mingled without distinc- 
tion. There the mayor of the town and the 
town major, who is appointed in all zones of 
the army as the representative of the military, 
came to call on us, and we started to get down 
to business. A most difficult thing for our 
men to realize was the various formalities 
through which one must go in working with 
the French. Many times, real trouble was 
caused because the Americans did not under- 
stand what a part in French life politesse plays. 
No conversation on military matters is carried 
on by the French in the way we would. You 
do not go straight to the point. Each parti- 
cipant first expresses himself on the virtues 
and great deeds of the other, and after this 
the sordid matter of business in hand is taken 
up. We were poorly equipped for this. Only 
McNair and I spoke French at all, and ours 
was weird and awful to a degree. We had 
both been taught by Americans after the best 
approved United States method. 

The French town major with whom we 




BRIGADIER GENERAL FRANK A. PARKER, LIEUTENANT COLONEL THEODORE 
ROOSEVELT, AND MRS. ROOSEVELT AT ROMAGNE 



Overseas 39 

dwelt was an old fellow, a veteran of the war 
of 1870. He had an enormous white mustache. 
He "snorted like a buffalo," and the one word 
that I always understood was parfaitement, 
which he constantly used. 

Right by this area was the birthplace of 
Jeanne d'Arc. The humble little village, 
Domremy, is just like any of those in the sur- 
rounding country. The house where she is 
supposed to have lived is rather smaller than 
its neighbors. In many ways Jeanne d'Arc 
and this little village symbolize France to me. 
France is France not on account of those who 
scintillate in Paris, but on account of the 
humbler people, those whom the tourist never 
sees, or if he does, forgets. France has 
no genius for politics. Her Chamber of 
Deputies is composed of men who amount to 
little and who do not share the national ideals 
and visions, but in the body of the people you 
find that flaming and pure patriotism which 
counts no costs when the fight is for France. 
The national impulse will exist as long as there 
is a peasant left alive. 



40 Average Americans 

The training area was composed of a number 
of towns with from 1 50 to 500 civilian popula- 
tion. We ran from village to village in auto- 
mobiles, surprised and appalled by the number 
of men that the French military were able to 
put in each. 

These small French villages in the north 
of France resemble nothing that we have in 
our country. They are charming and pic- 
turesque, but various features are lacking 
which to the well-ordered American mind 
causes pain. To begin with, there is no system 
of plumbing. The village gets all its water 
supply from the public fountains. This natu- 
rally makes a bath an almost unknown luxury. 
Many times I have been asked by the French 
peasants why I wanted a bath, and should it 
be winter, was I not afraid I would be taken 
sick if I took one. Around these public 
fountains the village life centers. There the 
chattering groups of women and girls are 
always congregating. There the gossip of the 
countryside originates and runs its course. 
There is rarely electric light in the small towns, 



Overseas 4 1 

and enormous manure piles are in front of 
each house and in the street. The houses 
themselves are a combination affair, barn and 
house under the same roof. The other fea- 
tures that are always present are the church 
and cafe. Even in the smallest town there 
are generally charming chapels. The caf6s 
are where the opinions of the French nation 
are formed. 

The peasants who live in these villages have 
an immemorial custom behind them in most 
of their actions. They have the careful atti- 
tude of an old people, very difficult for our 
young and wasteful nation to understand. 
Each stray bit of wood, each old piece of iron, 
is saved and laid aside for future use. No 
great wasteful fires roar on the hearth, but 
rather a few fagots, carefully measured to do 
just what is intended for them. 

The families have lived in the same spot 
for generations. Their roots are very firmly 
in the ground. Individually they are a curi- 
ous combination of simplicity and shrewdness. 
One old woman with whom my brother Archie 



42 Average Americans 

was billeted in the town of Boviolles became 
quite a friend of ours. We talked together 
in the evening, sitting by the great fireplace, 
in which a little bit of a fire would be burning. 
She had never in her life been farther than six 
or eight miles from the village of Boviolles. 
To her Paris was as unreal as Colchis or Baby- 
lon to us. She, in common with her country 
folk, looked forward to the arrival of the Amer- 
ican army, much in the way we would look 
forward to the arrival of the Hottentots. In 
fact, when she heard we were coming to the 
village, she at first decided to run away. To 
her the United States was a wilderness in- 
habited by Indians and cowboys. We told 
her about New York City and Chicago. We 
told her that New York was larger than Paris 
and that neither of us had ever shot a bear 
there and no Indians tomahawked people on 
the street. We explained to her that if you 
took all the houses in the village and placed 
them one on top of another they would not 
stand as high as some of our buildings. As a 
result, she felt toward us much as the con- 



Overseas 43 

temporaries of Marco Polo felt toward him 
— we were amiable story-tellers and that 
was all. 

Once I introduced a French officer to Colonel 
William J. Donovan, of the 165th Infantry. 
In the course of my introduction I mentioned 
the fact that Colonel Donovan came from 
Buffalo. After Donovan had gone, the French- 
man remarked to me, "Buffalo is very wild, 
is it not?" I answered him guardedly, "Not 
very." He explained, "But it is the place 
where you hunt that great animal, is it 
not?" 

Something that struck me forcibly was the 
total lack of roving desire among the peasants. 
Where they had been born, there they desired 
to live and die. This you would see in the 
poilu in the trenches, whose idea always was 
to return home again to the house where he 
was born. 

There is also a very real democracy in the 
French army. This should be borne in mind 
by all those who go about talking of the mili- 
tary aristocracy which would be built up by 



44 Average Americans 

universal service in this country. In France 
I have seen sons of the most prominent fami- 
lies, the descendants of the old haute noblesse, 
as privates or noncommissioned officers. I 
also have seen in the little French villages a 
high officer of the French army returning to 
his family for his leave, that family being the 
humblest of peasants, living in a cottage of 
two rooms. I have dined with a general, 
been introduced by him to the remainder of 
his family, and found them privates and non- 
commissioned officers. 

The French sent to the Gondecourt area 
a division of the "Chasseurs Alpins" to help 
train us. The chasseurs are a separate unit 
from the French infantry and have their own 
particular customs. To begin with, their 
military organization is slightly different, in 
that they do not have regiments and the 
battalion forms the unit. Their uniforms 
are dark blue with silver buttons, and they 
do not wear the ordinary French cap, but 
have a dark-blue cloth bSret, or tam-o'- 
shanter, with an Alpine horn embroidered in 



Overseas 45 

silver as insignia. The corps is an old one 
and has many traditions. Their pride is to 
consider themselves as quite apart from the 
infantry; indeed, they feel highly insulted if 
you confuse the two, although, to all intents 
and purposes, their work is identical. They 
have songs of their own, some of them very 
uncomplimentary to the infantry, and highly 
seasoned, according to our American ideas. 
They have a custom when marching on parade 
of keeping a step about double the time of the 
ordinary slow step. Their bugle corps, which 
they have instead of our regimental brass 
bands, are very snappy and effective, and the 
men have a trick of waving their bugles in 
unison before they strike a note, which is 
very effective. They have no drums. These 
quaint, squat, jovial, dark-haired fellows 
were billeted in the villages all around our 
area. 

The billeting party, after working very hard 
and accomplishing very little, divided the 
area up as the French suggested. In advance 
of the remainder of our troops the battalion 



46 Average Americans 



of the Sixteenth Infantry, which paraded in 
Paris on the Fourth of July, arrived. We 
were all down at the train to meet them, as 
was a battalion of the Chasseurs Alpins. 
They came in the ordinary day coaches used 
in France. I remember hearing an officer say 
that these were hard on the men. It was the 
last time that I ever saw our troops travel in 
anything but box cars, and this arrangement 
was made, I think, as a special compliment by 
the French Government. 

A couple of days afterward came the Four- 
teenth of July. The French had a parade, 
and our troops took part in it. The French 
troops came first past the reviewing officers, 
who were both French and American. The 
infantry of each battalion passed first, bay- 
onets glittering, lines smartly dressed; fol- 
lowing them in turn the machine-gun com- 
panies, or "jackass batteries," as they were 
called by our men, the mules finely curry- 
combed and the harness shining. Their bands, 
with the brass trumpets, played snappily. 
Altogether they gave an appearance of con- 



Overseas 47 

fident efficiency. Then came our troops — in 
column of squads. What held good in Paris 
still held good — our splendidly trained little 
army did not dare trust itself to take up 
platoon front. 



CHAPTER IV 

TRAINING IN FRANCE 

"I wish myself could talk to myself as I left 'im a year ago; 
I could tell 'im a lot that would save 'im a lot in the things 

that 'e ought to know. 
When I think o' that ignorant barrack bird it almost makes 
me cry." 

Kipling. 

A DAY or two after the Fourteenth of July 
review the rest of the troops arrived and 
my personal fortune hung in the balance, as I 
was still unattached. Colonel Duncan, after- 
ward Major General Duncan, commander of 
the Seventy-seventh and Eighty-second divi- 
sions, was then commanding the Twenty- 
sixth Infantry. One of his majors had turned 
out to be incompetent. He came to General 
Sibert and asked if he had an extra major to 
whom he could give a try-out. 

"Yes," replied General Sibert. "Why 

not try Roosevelt?" 

4 8 




THREE THEODORE ROOSEVELTS 

Copyright, Walter S. Shinn 



Training in France 49 

''Send him along and I will see what he's 
good for," was Duncan's reply. 

I went that day, took command of my bat- 
talion the day after, and never left the Twenty- 
sixth Infantry, except when wounded, until 
just before coming back to this country after 
the war. 

Most of the Twenty-sixth Infantry was 
billeted in a town called Demange-aux-Eaux, 
one of the largest in the area. By it flowed a 
good-sized stream, a convenient bathtub for 
officers and men alike. We started at once 
cleaning up places for the company kitchens, 
getting the billets as comfortable as possible 
and selecting sites for drill grounds. 

The men, who up to this time had been be- 
wildered by the rapid changes, now began to 
find themselves and make up to the French 
inhabitants. I have seen time and time again 
a group composed of two or three poilus and 
two or three doughboys wandering down the 
street arm in arm, all talking at once, neither 
nationality understanding the other and all 
having a splendid time. The Americans' 



50 Average Americans 

love for children asserted itself and the men 
made fast friends with such youngsters as 
there were. It is a sad fact that there are 
very few children in northern France. In 
the evenings, after their drill was over, the men 
would sit in groups with the women and chil- 
dren, talking and laughing. Sometimes some 
particularly ambitious soldier would get a 
French dictionary and laboriously endeavor 
to pick out, word by word, various sentences. 
Others, feeling that the French had better 
learn our language rather than we learn theirs, 
endeavored to instruct their new friends in 
English. 

About this time that national institution 
of France, vin ordinaire, was introduced to 
our men. The two types, vin blanc, white 
wine, and vin rouge, red wine, were immediately 
christened vin blink and vin rough. The fact 
that this wine could be bought for a very 
small amount caused much interest. Cham- 
pagne also came well within the reach of every- 
one's purse. To most of the men, champagne, 
up to this time, had been something they read 



Training in France 5 1 

about, and was connected in their minds with 
Broadway and plutocracy. It represented 
to them untold wealth completely surrounded 
by stage beauties. Here, all of a sudden, 
they found champagne something which could 
be bought by the poorest buck private. This, 
in some cases, had a temporarily disastrous 
effect, for under circumstances such as these 
a number of men might naturally feel that 
they should lay in a sufficient supply of cham- 
pagne to last them in memory, if nothing else, 
through the rest of their lives. 

I remember particularly one of my men 
who dined almost exclusively on champagne 
one evening and returned to his company with 
his sense of honor perhaps slightly distorted 
and his common sense entirely lacking. The 
company commander, Captain Arnold, of 
whom I spoke before, was standing in front 
of his billet when this man appeared with his 
rifle on his shoulder, saluted in the most cor- 
rect military manner, and said, "I desire the 
company commander's permission to shoot 
Private So-and-So, who has made some very 



5 2 Average Americans 

insulting remarks concerning the town in which 
I lived in the United States." 

Trouble of all sorts, however, was very 
small considering the circumstances, and de- 
creased with every month the troops were in 
France. We always found that the new men 
who arrived for replacements were the ones 
who were most likely to overstep the bounds, 
and with them it was generally the novelty 
rather than anything else. 

Then came the question of French money. 
We were all paid in francs. To begin with, our 
soldiers received eight or ten times as much 
pay as the average French soldier. This 
put them in the position of bloated pluto- 
crats. Then, too, none of us had very much 
idea of what French money meant. Since 
the war the paper of which French money 
was made had been of very inferior quality, 
and I know I personally felt that when I could 
get anything concrete, such as a good dinner, 
in exchange for these very dilapidated bits of 
paper, I had made a real bargain. The sol- 
diers, I am sure, were of the same opinion. 



Training in France 53 

Prices tripled wherever we were in France. 
Indeed, I doubt if in all their existence the 
little villages in our training area had ever 
had a tenth part of the money in circulation 
that appeared just after pay day for the troops. 
Of course, the French overcharged our men. 
It's human nature to take as much as you can 
get, and the French are human. One should 
remember, in blaming them for this, that our 
troops, before sailing for France, were over- 
charged by people in this country. When 
the doughboy wanted eggs, for instance, he 
wanted them badly, and that was all there 
was to it. In every company there was gen- 
erally one good "crap shooter." What the 
French did not get he got, and, contrary to the 
usual theory of gamblers' money, he usually 
saved it. One of the trials of an officer is the 
men's money. Before action, before any move, 
the men who have any money always come 
to their C. O. and ask him to keep it for them. 
I remember once an old sergeant came to me 
and asked me to keep two or three thousand 
francs for him. I did. Next day he was 



54 Average Americans 

A. W. O. L. He had not wanted to keep the 
money for fear of spending it if he got drunk. 
When he came back I tried him by court- 
martial, reduced him to the ranks, and gave 
him back his money. 

During the twenty months that I spent in 
Europe I was serving with troops virtually 
the entire time, commanding them in villages 
all through the north of France, through Lux- 
embourg and Germany, and in all that 
period I never had one complaint from the 
inhabitants concerning the treatment by our 
men of either women or children. When we 
went into conquered territory we did not 
even consider it necessary to speak to the 
men on this point, and our confidence was 
justified. Occasionally a man and his wife 
would call on me and ask if Private ' ' So-and- 
So" was really a millionaire in America, as 
he had said, because, if so, they thought it 
would be a good thing for him to marry their 
daughter. This would, however, generally 
smooth itself out, as Private "So-and-So, " 
as a rule, had no intention of marrying their 



Training in France 55 

daughter, and they had no intention of letting 
her marry him when they found out that the 
statement concerning his family estates in 
America was, to put it mildly, highly colored. 
Oddly enough, this is not as queer as one 
might think. The company cook in one of 
the companies of our battalion inherited, 
while in Europe, about $600,000. It never 
bothered him from any standpoint. He still 
remained cook and cooked as well as ever. 

The average day's training was divided 
about as follows: First call about 6 o'clock, 
an hour for breakfast and policing. After 
that, the troops marched out to some drill 
ground, where they maneuvered all day, talc- 
ing their lunch there and returning late in 
the afternoon. Formal retreat was then held, 
then supper, and by 10 o'clock taps sounded. 
The American troops experienced a certain 
amount of difficulty in fixing on satisfactory 
meeting grounds with the corresponding French 
units with whom they were training. Our 
battalion, however, was fortunate, but another 
battalion of our regiment had at periods to 



56 Average Americans 

turn out before daylight in order to make the 
march necessary to connect. 

This battalion during the early part of our 
training was billeted in the same town. One 
day their first call sounded at somewhere 
around 4.15. A good sergeant, Murphy by 
name, an old-timer who had been in the army 
twenty -four years, had his platoon all in one 
billet. He heard the first call, did not realize 
that it was not for him, and turned his 
platoon out. By the time he had the platoon 
filing out he discovered his mistake. At the 
same time he noticed that one of the men had 
not turned out. Murphy was a strict disci- 
plinarian and he took a squad from the platoon 
and went in to find the man. - The man ex- 
plained that this was not the correct call. 
Sergeant Murphy said that that made no 
difference, that when a platoon was formed, 
the place for every man was with the platoon, 
and, to the delight of the platoon and partic- 
ularly the squad which assisted him, escorted 
the recalcitrant sleeper out and dropped him 
in the stream. 



Training in France 57 

Sergeant Murphy was the type of man who 
is always an asset to a command. On the 
way to Europe he had been in charge of the 
kitchen police on board the transport and 
there had earned himself the name of "Spuds" 
Murphy. He was always faithful to whatever 
job he was detailed. When things were break- 
ing badly he could always be depended on to 
cheer the men up by joking with them. He 
was an old fellow, bent and very gray, and he 
was physically unable to stand a lot of the 
racket, so I used to order him to stay be- 
hind with the kitchens when we went into 
action. One night, when the troops were 
moving up to the front line, I was standing 
by the side of the road checking off the 
platoons as they passed. I thought I rec- 
ognized one figure silhouetted against the 
gray sky. A moment later I was positive 
when I heard, "Sure and if you feel that 
way about the Gairmans there're as good as 
beat." 

"Sergeant Murphy?" 

"Sor-r?" 



58 Average Americans 

"What are you doing here? Didn't I tell 
you to stay with the kitchens?" 

"But I didn't be thinkin' the Major would 
be wantin' me to stay coffee coolin' all the 
time, so I just come up for a little visit with 
the men." 

The actual training consisted of practice 
with the hand grenade, rifle grenade, automatic 
rifle, rifle, and bayonet, and in trench digging. 
We had a certain amount of difficulty merging 
the troops in with the French. It was really 
very hard for men who did not speak the same 
language to get anywhere. • In addition to 
this, the French temperament is so different 
from ours. They always felt that much could 
be learned by our troops watching theirs. 
But the soldier doesn't learn by watching. 
His eye doesn't teach his muscles service. 
The way to train men is by physical exercise 
and explanation, not by simply watching 
others train. 

At one time an artillery demonstration was 
scheduled. In it we were to see a rolling 
barrage illustrated and also destructive fire. 




I < 



Training in France 59 

The men paid no attention at all to the bom- 
bardment. A company commander described 
to me how the men lay down and rested when 
they got to the maneuvers ground. 

"Whizz, Bill, hear that boy," casually re- 
marked one, when the first shell went over. 
"What was it you said?" 

An interesting sidelight on our military es- 
tablishment is afforded by the fact that on our 
arrival in France there was no one with the 
command who had ever shot an automatic rifle, 
thrown a hand grenade, shot a rifle grenade, 
used a trench mortar or a .37-millimeter gun. 
These were all modern methods of waging war- 
fare, yet none of our military had been trained 
to the least degree in any of them. To all of 
us they were absolutely new. The closest any 
of us came to any previous knowledge was 
from occasional pictures we had seen in the 
illustrated reviews. 

The Major of the French battalion with 
whom we trained was named Menacci. He 
was a Corsican by birth and looked like a stage 
pirate. He had a long black beard, sparkling 



60 Avera ge Americans 

black eyes, and a great appearance of ferocity, 
but was as gentle a soul as I have ever known. 
The topic that interested him above all others 
was the question of marriage. He was just 
like a young girl or boy and loved to be teased 
about it. A very fine fellow called Beauclare 
assisted him. Beauclare was from the north 
of France, tall and light-haired, and full of 
energy. He would strip off his coat, throw 
grenades with the men, and join in the exercises 
with as much enjoyment as anyone. 

Curiously enough, the good fellowship of the 
French made things rather hard for many of 
us. The Chasseurs were as kind as could be, 
and I never shall cease to respect the men with 
whom we trained, both as soldiers and gentle- 
men. We, however, were trying by incessant 
work to overcome the handicap of ignorance 
with which we had started, while they were 
out of the line for a rest and naturally wished 
to enjoy themselves, have parties, and relax. 

At one time we tried attaching noncom- 
missioned officers from the French units to 
ours. We hoped we could accomplish more 



Training in France 61 

this way. It did not work well, however, 
except in one instance, in which the American 
company became so fond of their French 
"noncom." that they did their level best to 
keep him with them for the rest of the war. 

Toward the end of the training period, 
before the French left us, we had a sort of 
official party for both our troops and the 
French troops. It was held on our drill 
grounds and everyone had chow. The men 
and officers really enjoyed this affair. Later 
we gave another party for the French officers, 
who came and lunched with us. In the ath- 
letic sports that afternoon we experienced 
some difficulty with the middleweight boxing 
because Sergeant Ross, of B Company, was 
so much the best boxer that we could find no 
one to put up a good fight against him. 

Among the other sports was a "salad" race, 
in which all the combatants take off their 
shoes, piling them in the center of a circle. 
They line up around the edges and, at the 
word "go," run forward, try to find their own 
shoes, put them on, and lace them up. The 



62 Average Americans 

man who first does this wins. Of course, the 
contestants throw each other's shoes around, 
which adds to the general mix-up, with the 
usual comic incidents. During the meet a 
lieutenant rushed up to me before the tug of 
war was to be staged, terribly excited, ex- 
plaining that the best men in his company's 
team for a tug of war were just going on 
guard. I hurried off to try to change this and 
succeeded in mixing the guard up to such an 
extent that it took the better part of a day 
to get it straightened out again. 

The French noncoms. came over also and 
dined with our men, and one day all of us 
went over to the French village and saw their 
sports, mule races, pole vaulting, etc. Their 
officers' messes are very picturesque. Every 
action is surrounded by custom. They rise 
in their snappy blue uniforms and sing songs 
of previous battles and victories, and drink 
toasts to long-dead leaders. 

It was at this time we developed our policy 
concerning punishment. Under circumstances 
such as we were up against it was necessary 



Training in France 63 

to be severe, for the good of all. No outfit 
but had the same percentage of offenders ; the 
draft took all alike, and any man who says he 
had no punishments in his command is either 
a fool or a liar. We always considered, how- 
ever, that as far as possible, in minor offenses, 
it was better to avoid court-martial. The 
summary court if much used indicates a poor 
or lazy commander. Where possible we al- 
ways handled situations as follows: Private 
Blank is ordered to take his full pack on man- 
euvers, and does not. His CO. notices it at 
a halt. No charges are put in against him for 
disobedience of orders. His pack is opened 
then and there and nice, well-selected rocks 
are put in to take the place of the missing 
blankets and shelter half. He resumes the 
march with these on his back and has to keep 
up. 

One cold day the buglers, who are supposed 
to be having a liaison drill while the rest of the 
brigade are maneuvering, decide to sneak off 
and build a fire. They are discovered, and then 
and there are ordered to climb to the top of 



64 Average Americans 

a pine tree, where they are made to bugle in a 
cold wind during the rest of the morning. 

These punishments serve two purposes — 
first, they check the offender, at the moment 
he has committed the breach of discipline, 
and not only make it very unpleasant for him, 
but also make him ridiculous in the eyes of 
the other men. Second, they leave no stain 
on his record and let him keep his money. 

It must not be taken from the above that 
I do not believe court-martial necessary, for 
I most emphatically do in many cases. You 
often cannot reach constant offenders by any 
other method. Also such offenses as "theft," 
desertion, and serious insubordination can 
be dealt with suitably by no other method. 
I believe in keeping all cases away from the 
court when possible, but I also believe, when 
you do take them into the courts, you should 
punish stringently. 

In addition to the numerous incidents where 
too severe penalties have been imposed, there 
are many instances of unjustifiable leniency. 
This is resented by all alike. I remember the 



Training in France 65 

comment which was caused among all ranks 
by the pardoning of men convicted of having 
slept on their posts. This pardoning sounds 
pretty and humane to those who have not 
been in the fighting line, but where the lives 
of all depend on the vigilance of that sentry, 
it is "a gray horse of another color." 



CHAPTER V 

LIFE IN AN ARMY AREA 

""THE billeting of the men was a problem. 
As I mentioned before, the constitution of 
the United States forbids billeting, taking as 
ground for this action that when soldiers are 
placed under a private roof constant friction 
is bound to arise. In Europe the masses of 
troops were so great and the country so thickly 
settled that this method of caring for the 
soldiers was of necessity the only one that 
could be adopted. In the average French 
farm the houses have big barns attached to 
them. In the barn on the ground floor are 
the pigs, cows, and numberless rabbits, also 
farm implements, wagons, and the like. Up a 
shaky ladder, which had been doing service 
for generations, is the hay-loft. 

66 



Life in an Army Area 67 

There, among the hay, the soldiers are bil- 
leted and sleep. 

When we first came over, according to our 
best army traditions, cots were brought for the 
men. We tried to fit these into the barns, but 
soon found it impossible, and, after we had been 
there a certain length of time, we turned them 
all in, and they were never again used by the 
troops. Instead, we bought hay from the 
natives, spread it on the floor of the loft, and 
the men slept on it. This sounds pleasant, 
but it isn't as pleasant as it sounds. It is 
fairly good in summer, as the weather is warm, 
the days are long, and the barn is generally 
full of cracks, which let in the air, and you 
can get along quite well as to light. When 
winter comes, however, the barns are freezing 
cold, and the men, after their hard work in 
the rain, come back soaking wet. It gets dark 
early, and the sun does not rise until late. On 
account of the hay the greatest care must be 
used with lights. Smoking has to be strictly 
forbidden. You have, therefore, at the end 
of the day tired, wet men, who have nowhere 



68 Average Americans 

to go except to their billets, and in the billets 
no light to speak of, very little heat, and a 
strict prohibition against smoking. 

The officers, of course, fared better. They 
slept in the houses, and generally got beds. 
Europeans do not like fresh air. They feel 
a good deal like the gentleman in Stephen 
Leacock's story, who said he liked fresh air, 
and believed you should open the windows 
and get in all you could. Then you should 
shut the windows and keep it there. It would 
keep for years. 

I have been in many rooms where the win- 
dows were nailed shut. The beds also are 
rather remarkable. They are generally fitted 
with feather mattresses and feather quilts. 
Very often they are arranged in a niche in the 
wall like a closet, and have two doors, which 
the average European, after getting into the 
bed, closes, thereby rendering it about as airy 
and well ventilated as a coffin. 

I remember my own billet in one of the 
towns where we stopped. As I was command- 
ing officer, it was one of the best and was 



Life in an Army Area 69 

reasonably warm. It was warm because the 
barnyard was next door, literally in the next 
room, as all that separated me from a cow 
was a light deal door by the side of the bed. 
The cow was tied to the door. When the 
cow slept I slept; but if the cow passed a 
restless night I had all the opportunity I 
needed to think over my past sins and future 
plans. In another town an excellent billet 
was not used by the officers because over the 
bed were hung photographs of all the various 
persons who had died in the house, taken while 
they lay dead in that bed. 

Human nature is the same the world over, 
and we became very fond of some of the per- 
sons with whom we were billeted, while others 
stole everything that was left loose. One 
hoary old sinner, with whom I lived, quite 
endeared herself to me by her evident sim- 
plicity and her gentleness of manner, until I 
discovered one day that, under the aegis of the 
commanding officer billeting there, she was 
illicitly selling cognac to the soldiers. 

The struggle of certain sergeants with some 



70 Average Americans 

of these French inhabitants concerning the 
neatness of their various company kitchens 
or billets always amused me. I remember 
a feud in one village which was carried on 
between a little Frenchwoman and a ser- 
geant called Murphy. Sergeant Murphy liked 
everything spick and span. The French wo- 
man had lived all her life where things were 
not, to put it mildly, according to Sergeant 
Murphy's army-trained idea of sanitation. 
The rock that they finally split on was the 
question of tin cans, old boxes, and egg-shells 
in front of Sergeant Murphy's kitchen. I 
shall never forget coming around a corner and 
seeing Sergeant Murphy, tall and dignified, 
the Frenchwoman small and voluble, facing 
one another in front of his kitchen, she chat- 
tering French without a break and he saying 
with great dignity, "Ma'am, it is outrage- 
ous. It is the third time to-day that this 
stuff has been taken away. I shall throw 
it in your back yard." He did, and next 
morning the conflict was joined again. Al- 
though Murphy kept up the struggle nobly, 



Life in an Army Area 7 1 

no impression was made on the French- 
woman. 

Most generally, in France, the small French 
village contains about one battalion of in- 
fantry. As a result, the battalion commander 
is post commander, and to him all the woes of 
the various inhabitants as well as the troubles 
of his own troops come. One complaint which 
filled me with delight was made by a French- 
woman. The basis of the complaint was that 
my men, by laughing and talking in her barn, 
prevented her sheep and pigs from getting a 
proper amount of sleep. 

A constantly recurring source of trouble 
were the rabbits. The rabbits in all French 
country families are a sort of Lares and Pe- 
nates. You find them in hutches around 
the houses, wandering in the barns, hopping 
about the kitchens, and, last but by no means 
least, in savory stews. I don't maintain for 
a moment that none of my men ever took a 
rabbit; I simply maintain that it would be a 
physical impossibility for these men to have 
eaten the number of rabbits they were accused 



72 Average Americans 

of eating. Every little while in each town 
some peasant would come before me with a 
complaint, the gist of which was that the men 
had eaten a dozen or so rabbits. With great 
dignity I would say that I would have the 
matter investigated. The man would then 
suggest that I come and count the rabbits 
in the village, so that I would know if any 
were missing. I would explain in my best 
French that from a long and accurate know- 
ledge of rabbits, gathered through years 
when, as a boy, I kept them in quantities, 
counting rabbits one day did not mean that 
there would be the same number the next 
day. 

Eventually we adopted the scheme of mak- 
ing some officer claim adjuster. After this 
it was smooth sailing for me. I simply would 
tell the mayor that Lieutenant Barrett would 
adjust the matter under dispute, and from 
then on Lieutenant Barrett battled with the 
aggrieved. He told me once he thought he 
was going to be murdered by a little woman, 
who kept an inn, over a log of wood that the 



Life in an Army Area 73 

men had used for the company kitchen. 
Several times persons offered to go shares 
with him on what he was able to get for them 
from the government. 

In this part of France there was quite a 
little wild life. Sail-winged hawks were con- 
stantly soaring over the meadows. Coveys 
of European partridges were quite plentiful. 
Among the other birds the magpie and the 
skylark were the most noticeable, the former 
ubiquitous with his flamboyant contrast of 
black and white, the latter a constant source 
of delight, with clear song and graceful spirals. 
The largest wild animal was the boar. There 
were quite a number of these throughout the 
woods. As a rule, they were not large, and 
there was, so far as I could find out, no attempt 
made to preserve them. We would scare 
them up while maneuvering. They are good 
eating, and occasionally we would organize a 
hunt. The French Daniel Boone, of Boviolles, 
was a delightful old fellow. When going on 
a hunt he would put on a bright blue coat, 
a green hat, and sling a silver horn over his 



74 Average Americans 

shoulders, resembling for all the world the 
huntsman in Slovenly Peter. 

During August a number of the field officers 
were sent on their first trip to the trenches. 
I was among them. We went by truck to 
Nancy, a charming little city, known as the 
Paris of northern France. At this time the 
Huns had not started their air raids on it, 
which drove much of the population away and 
reduced the railroad station to ruins. Round 
it cling many historic memories ; near by was 
fought the battle between Charles the Bold, 
of Burgundy, and Louis XI, in which feudal- 
ism was struck its death blow; on the hills 
to the north the Kaiser stood at the com- 
mencement of this war, when the German 
troops were flowing over France, seemingly 
resistless. 

From Nancy we went to the Pont-a-Mousson 
sector, where we spent a day with French 
officers of the corresponding grade. This was 
a rest sector, and there was little to indicate 
that war was raging. Occasionally a shell 
would whistle over, and if you exposed your- 



Life in an Army Area 75 

self too much some Hun might take a shot at 
you with a rifle. 

Pont-a-Mousson, the little French village, 
was literally in the French front lines, and yet 
a busy life was going on there. There I 
bought cigarettes, and around the arcade of 
the central square business was much as usual. 
A bridge spanned the river right by the town, 
where everyone crossing was in plain view of 
the Germans. The French officers explained 
to me that so long as only small parties crossed 
by it the Germans paid no attention, but if 
columns of troops or trucks used it shelling 
started at once. In the same way the French 
did not shell, except under exceptional cir- 
cumstances, the villages in the German forward 
area. 

On a high hill overlooking Pont-a-Mousson 
were the ruins of an old castle built by the 
De Guises. In old days it was the key to the 
ford where the bridge now stands. It was 
being used as an observation post by the 
French. I crawled up into its ivy-draped, 
crumbling tower, and through a telescope 



76 Average Americans 

looked far back of the German lines, where I 
saw the enemy troops training in open order 
and two German officers on horseback super- 
intending. 

In the trenches where the soldiers were there 
were vermin and rats and mud to the waist. 
There I made my first acquaintance with the 
now justly famous "cootie." 

During this night I went on my first patrol. 
No Man's Land was very broad, and deep fields 
of wire surrounded the trenches. The patrol 
finished without incident. The only casualty 
in the vicinity while I was on this front was a 
partridge, which was hit on the head by a 
fragment of shell, and which the French major 
and I ate for dinner and enjoyed very much. 
We returned to our training area by the same 
way we came. The principal knowledge we 
had gained besides general atmosphere was 
relative to the feeding of men in trenches. 

These were the primitive days of our army 
in France. We being the first troops who had 
arrived, received a very large proportion of the 
attention of General Pershing and his staff. 



Life in an Army Area 77 

The General once came out to look over the 
Twenty-sixth Infantry, and stopped in front 
of the redoubtable Sergeant Murphy and his 
platoon. Now, Sergeant Murphy could stand 
with equanimity as high an officer as a colonel, 
but a general was one too many. He was not 
afraid of a machine gun or a cannon, but a 
star on a man's shoulder petrified him. After 
the General had watched for a minute, the good 
sergeant had his platoon tied up in thirteen 
different ways. The General spoke to him. 
That finished it; and if the General had not 
left the field, I think Sergeant Murphy would 
have. 

With all of us comic incidents in plenty 
occurred. Our most notable characteristic 
was our seriousness, and, running it a close 
second, our ignorance. I remember one sol- 
emn private who threw a hand grenade from 
his place in the trench. It hit the edge of the 
parapet and dropped back again. He looked 
at it, remarked "Lord God," slipped in the 
mud, and sat down on it just as it exploded. 
Fortunately for him it was one of the light, 



78 Average Americans 

tin-covered grenades, and beyond making 
sitting down an almost impossible action for 
him for several days following he was com- 
paratively undamaged. Often the comic was 
tinged with the tragic. We had men who en- 
deavored to open grenades with a rock, with 
the usual disastrous effects to all. 

Once Sergeant O'Rourke was training his 
men in throwing hand grenades. I came up 
and watched them a minute. They were 
doing very well, and I called, "Sergeant, your 
men are throwing these grenades excellently." 
O'Rourke evidently felt there was danger of 
turning their heads by too much praise. 
"Sor-r-r, that and sleep is all they can do 
well," he replied. 

In order to get the men trained with the 
rifle, as we had no target material, we used 
tin cans and rocks. A tin can is a particu- 
larly good target; it makes such a nice noise 
when hit, and leaps about so. I liked to shoot 
at them myself, and could well understand 
why they pleased the soldiers. 

Why more persons were not killed in our 




BEFORE THE OFFENSIVE 

Drawn by Captain W. J. Aylward, A. E. F. 



Life in an Army Area 79 

practice I don't know, as the whole division 
was in training in a limited space, all having 
rifle practice, with no possibility of construct- 
ing satisfactory ranges. 

Some officers in another unit organized a 
rifle range in such a position that the overs 
dropped gently where we were training. One 
eventually hit my horse, but did not do much 
damage. 

Lieutenant Lyman S. Frazier, an excellent 
officer, who finished the war as major of in- 
fantry, commanded the machine-gun company 
of my battalion. He was very keen on indi- 
rect fire, but we could get little or no informa- 
tion on it. One evening, however, he grouped 
his guns, made his calculations as well as he 
could, and then fired a regular barrage. As 
soon as the demonstration was over he gal- 
loped out as fast as he could to the target, and 
found to his chagrin that only one shot had 
hit. Where the other 10,000 odd went we 
never knew. 

We had many incidents that were really 
humorous with the men in the guard mount. 



80 Average Americans 

A young fellow, named Cobb, who lost his leg 
later in the war, was standing guard early in 
his military career. A French girl passed him 
in the dark. He challenged, "Who is there?" 
She replied, "Qu'est-ce qu'il dit?" Young 
Cobb didn't know French, but he did know 
that when in doubt on any subject you called 
the corporal of the guard. So he shouted at 
the top of his voice, "Corporal of the guard, 
queskidee!" 

We emphasized the manual of formal guard 
mount as a disciplinary exercise. One of the 
regulations is that when the ranking officer 
in a post passes the guardhouse, the sentry 
calls, "Turn out the guard — commanding 
officer," and the guard is paraded. We had 
lived so long by ourselves that although we 
sometimes had the colonel in the same town, 
when we were in the Montdidier sector, I never 
could persuade them to pay any attention to 
him. They had it firmly rooted in their minds 
that the ceremony was forme and no one else. 

Occasionally a German airplane would come 
over and bomb the towns in the area. This 



Life in an Army Area 81 

furnished a real element of excitement, as we 
had anti-aircraft guns set up. The one 
trouble was that we could not tell at night 
which was a German and which was a French 
plane, with the result that if we should happen 
to hit one it was as likely that we would hit a 
French one as not. We were saved this em- 
barrassment by never hitting one. Later, in 
the Montdidier sector, I remember hearing 
how, in a burst of enthusiasm, the gun crew of 
one of our 75's had fired at an airplane, and by 
some remarkable coincidence had torn a wing 
off and brought it down. On rushing out to 
inspect it they found it contained a very 
irascible Frenchman. 



CHAPTER VI 

EARLY DAYS IN THE TRENCHES 

"How strange a spectacle of human passions 
Is yours all day beside the Arras road, 
What mournful men concerned about their rations 
When here at eve the limbers leave their load, 
What twilight blasphemy, what horses' feet 
Entangled with the meat, 
What sudden hush when that machine gun sweeps 

And flat as possible for men so round 
The quartermasters may be seen in heaps, 
While you sit by and chuckle, I'll be bound." 

A. P. H. {Punch). 

C ARLY in October mysterious orders reached 

us to spend forty-eight hours in some 

trenches we had dug on top of a hill close to 

the village, simulating actual conditions as well 

as we could. At the same time a battalion of 

each of the other three infantry regiments were 

similarly instructed. The orders were so well 

worked out that we were convinced at once 

82 



Early Days in the Trenches 83 

that we were to go in the near future to the 
front. Everyone was in a high state of ex- 
citement, and very happy that we were at last 
to see action. 

The hilltop where we were to stay was 
covered by the remains of an old Roman 
camp, commanding the two forks of the 
stream. We marched up the following day 
over the remains of the old Roman road, and 
passed our last short period training to meet 
the barbarians of the north, where Caesar's 
legions, nearly two thousand years ago, trained 
for the same purpose. Many features were 
lacking from the trenches on the hill, such as 
dugouts, for example, but we felt we could 
get along without them, and everything went 
happily and serenely the first day. 

We had the rolling kitchens and hospitals 
placed on the reverse slope in the woods. 
Carrying parties brought the chow along a 
trench traced with white tape to the troops, 
and they ate it without leaving their posi- 
tions. During the evening, however, "sunny 
France" had a relapse, and a terrific rain- 



84 Average Americans 

storm came on. It was bitterly cold, and a 
high wind swept the hilltop. We were all 
soaked to the skin. 

The men either huddled against the side 
of a trench or stretched their ponchos from 
parapet to parapet, and sat beneath them in 
a foot-deep puddle of water. In making in- 
spection I passed by a number of them that 
night who looked as if they were perfectly 
willing to have the war end right then. 

The company in reserve was occupying the 
territory around the old Roman wall. They 
had dug some holes in it, and crawled into 
them to keep as near dry as possible. Splen- 
did so far as it went, but nearly disastrous, 
for a message reached me saying that a first 
sergeant, the company commander, the sec- 
ond in command and the company clerk had 
all been buried by a cave-in. I ran back 
to see about them and found that they had 
been extricated, and looked like animated 
mud-pies. 

One company commander during the middle 
of the second day started his men digging 



Early Days in the Trenches 85 

trenches as deep as they could, so that at 
night when the rain started again and the 
cold wind blew up they would have some 
place to stay. They dug vigorously all day, 
but by night, when the rain came down in 
torrents again, the trenches filled up like 
bath-tubs, and they had to sit on the edge. 

After the maneuvers we received definite 
orders that we were to go to the front. The 
equipment was checked and verified, and every- 
thing put in apple-pie order. The trucks 
arrived; we got in and started, all of us feeling 
that now at last we were to be real warriors. 
All day long the truck train, stretching out 
along the road, jolted forward in a cloud of 
dust. Toward evening we began to pass 
through the desolated area over which the 
Hun had swept in 19 14, and about five o'clock 
we detrucked at a little town about fourteen 
miles behind the lines. 

Here we stayed a couple of days, while 
our reconnoitering details went forward and 
familiarized themselves with the position. 
On the evening of the second day the troops 



86 Average Americans 

started forward. As usual, it was raining cats 
and dogs, and our principal duty during the ten 
days we spent in the sector was shoveling mud 
the color and consistency of melted chocolate 
ice cream from cave-ins which constantly oc- 
curred in the trench system. 

We were all very green and very earnest. 
The machine-gun company arrived, bringing 
all its ammunition on the gun carts. The 
guns were uncased and the carts sent to the 
rear with ammunition still on them, leaving 
the guns with hardly a round. Only about 
five or ten shells were fired daily by the Ger- 
man artillery against the portion of line we 
occupied. One man was hit, our signal 
officer, Lieutenant Hardon, his wound being 
very slight. The adjutant, when this hap- 
pened, ran to tell me, and we both went down 
and solemnly congratulated Hardon on having 
the honor to be the first American officer hit 
while serving with American troops. 

A number of ambitious members of the in- 
telligence group sniped busily at the German 
trenches. These were about a mile away, and 



Early Days in the Trenches 87 

though they reported heavy casualties among 
the enemy, I believe that the wish was father 
to the thought. 

The French were on our right, and we had 
some very funny times with them. One 
officer of mine was coming in after inspecting 
the wire and ran into one of their sentries. 

"Qui est la?" called the sentry. 

My officer then gave in his best American 
what he had been told was the French pass- 
word. This was incomprehensible to the 
Frenchman, who immediately replied by firing 
his rifle at him. The officer jumped up and 
down and gave the password again. Blam 
went the Frenchman's rifle the second time. 
Nothing but the fact that the Frenchman 
regarded the rifle more as a lead squirt rather 
than a weapon of accuracy prevented him 
from being hit. The officer eventually got 
through by shouting repeatedly at the top 
of his voice, "Vive les Americains!" 

At the end of the ten days we were relieved 
and hiked back veteran troops, as we thought, 
to the training area. Our medical depart- 



88 Average Americans 

ment, not the department with the troops, 
but our higher medical department, which 
dealt with papers rather than facts, sent at 
this time a letter which I would give a lot to 
have now simply as a humorous document. 
It was headed "General Order — ." It had 
at the top as subject — " Pediculi." Pediculi is 
the polite medical name for lice. We were 
instructed in the body that immediately on 
leaving the trenches all men were to be 
inspected completely by the medical officer 
before they were allowed to go to their billets. 
This involved the inspection by the medical 
officer of some one thousand men. It further- 
more necessitated the inspection of these one 
thousand men between two and five in the 
morning, in the dark. The order went on to 
say that where pediculi were present all clothes 
were to be confiscated, finishing with the brief 
and bland statement that thereupon new 
clothes were to be furnished throughout. 
This to us, who had not had new clothes since 
we reached France, to whom every garment 
was a valuable possession that could not be 



Early Days in the Trenches 89 

replaced! However, we have no doubt that 
the medical officer felt that he had done some- 
thing splendid, and what is more, his paper 
record was perfect in that, although what he 
demanded was impossible, he had put it on 
paper, and, therefore, someone else was to 
blame for not carrying it out. 

Our first Christmas in France was spent in 
the usual little French village. The men had 
raised a fund to be used for the purpose of 
giving a Christmas tree to the refugee children 
living in the vicinity, as well as the native 
children. It was the first Christmas tree that 
the village had seen and excitement was 
intense. The festivities were held in a mess 
shack, and to them came nearly the entire 
population, though I gave instructions to be 
sure that the children were taken care of before 
the "grown-ups." The enlisted men ran the 
festivities themselves. 

Flickering candle-light cast shadows over 
Christmas greens and mistletoe and the 
rough boards of the shack. A buzzing mass 
of French children and adults crowded around 



9° Average Americans 

the tree, and lean, weather-beaten American 
sergeants gave out the presents. There were 
the usual horns and crackers, and in a few 
minutes pandemonium had broken loose. 
The cure was there, and the mayor, dressed 
in an antediluvian frock coat and top hat- 
These two, at a given signal, succeeded in 
partially stilling the tumult by making an 
equal noise themselves, and a little girl and 
boy appeared with a large bouquet for me. 
First they made a little speech in French, 
looking as cunning as possible. Each time 
they said "Mon Commandant" they made a 
funny little bow. After giving me the bou- 
quet the little girl kissed me. Then the mayor 
spoke. Warned by the little girl's action, I 
fended him off with the bouquet when he 
showed a tendency to become affectionate. 
I then answered in my best French, which 
I alone understood, and the festivities 
finished. 

Later in the evening the men gave a show, 
which they had arranged themselves. It was 
really very good. Sergeant Frank Ross was 



Early Days in the Trenches 91 

principally responsible, ably assisted by Pri- 
vates Cooper, Neary, and Smith. The humor 
was local soldier humor and absolutely clean. 
For instance, the men always march with 
their extra pair of shoes strapped on the out- 
side of the pack. One man on the stage would 
say to the other: "Say, Buddy, I call my pack 
my little O. D. baby. It wears shoes the 
same size as mine, and I can't get the son of a 
gun to walk a step." 

During the play the sergeant of the guard 
came in to me and said, "Sir, there has been 
a little disturbance. Sergeant Withis of B 
Company says C Company men have been 
picking on him; but, sir, there are three C 
Company men at the infirmary and Withis 
is all right." 

The day, however, on the whole, was a suc- 
cess and it speaks well for the men, for of all 
the Christmas dinner that our papers talked 
so much about, practically nothing but a few 
nuts and raisins reached us. 

One old regular sergeant of C Company, 
Baird by name, discovered at this time a 



92 Average Americans 

novel use for the gas mask. The old fellow 
had been in service for many years, and 
though a fine and gallant soldier, he was long 
past his prime physically. He always re- 
minded me of Kipling's description of Akela 
the gray wolf, when he says that "Akela was 
very old and gray, and he walked as though he 
were made of wood." Baird was a great man 
on paper work, and believed in having his 
company files in tiptop shape. Facilities were 
a little poor. One bitter day he tried to make 
some reports. First he tried in the barn, 
where his hands became so cold he couldn't 
write. Then he tried in the kitchen, and his 
eyes got so full of smoke he couldn't see. At 
last we found him sitting in the kitchen with 
his gas mask on making his reports, writing in 
comfort. 

We were joined at this time by Major Atkins 
of the Salvation Army, an exceptionally fine 
character. He stayed with us during most of 
the time we were in Europe. He was cour- 
ageous under fire, felt that where the men went 
he wished to go, and was a splendid influence 



Early Days in the Trenches 93 

with them. Whatever he could do he always 
did with a whole heart. 

Before the war I felt that the Salvation 
Army was composed of a well-meaning lot of 
cranks. Now what help I can give them is 
theirs. My feelings are well illustrated by a 
conversation I overheard between two soldiers. 
One said, "Say, Bill, before this war I used 
to think it good fun to kid the Salvation 
Army. Now I'll bust any feller on the bean 
with a brick if I see him botherin' them." 

Early in January we were told that replace- 
ments were arriving to bring up our companies 
to 250 in strength. When the men arrived we 
planned to be there on time to get our fair 
share. Two old sergeants, Studal and Shultz, 
went down and helped pick the recruits, work- 
ing from detachment to detachment trying to 
shift the best material into our detail. The 
men were, on the whole, a fine lot, but their 
knowledge of military matters was absolutely 
nil. A large percentage had never shot any 
firearms, and still a larger percentage had 
never shot the service rifle. One man turned 



94 Average Americans 

up with a service record on which was nothing 
except "Mennonite, objects to bearing arms." 
Incidentally he made an excellent soldier, and 
was killed while fighting gallantly near Mont- 
didier. Another man had partial paralysis of 
one side. When the medical officer asked 
him if he had been examined before he said, 
"No, sir; just drafted." Still another had an 
arm so stiffened that he could hardly bend his 
elbow. When the medical officer tried to 
send him to the rear he protested. We let 
him stay. He became an automatic rifle 
gunner, and was later killed. 

One westerner, from Montana I believe, 
called Blalock, finished the war as first ser- 
geant in Company D, after a very distin- 
guished record. Another young fellow, Aug 
by name, was a real estate man from Sacra- 
mento. I noticed him first when he was 
detailed as my orderly. Later he was cited 
for gallantry twice, and eventually sent to the 
officers' school, where he got a commission, 
and asked to be returned to the fighting troops. 
He fell in action just before the armistice. 



Early Days in the Trenches 95 

Private "Bill" Margeas was a Greek who 
came with this lot. He was shot through the 
chest at Montdidier, and later ran away from 
the hospital and got back before Soissons. 
He came in to report to me. I had been near 
him when he had been hit before. 

"Margeas," I said, "you're in no shape 
to carry a pack." 

"No, sir," said he, "but I can carry a rifle 
all right." 

He was killed later in the Argonne. 

Two Chinamen, Young and Chew, drafted 
from San Francisco, were also in this lot. 
They were with my headquarters all during 
the war. 

These replacements had absolutely no con- 
ception of military etiquette. They wanted 
to do what was right, but they didn't know 
anything. When one man from a western 
National Guard regiment — incidentally he was 
a German by birth — came up to me with a 
message from his company commander, he 
would always begin with, "Say." One time I 
asked him when he was born and he told 



9 6 Average Americans 

me in 1848, which impressed me as being a 
slight overstatement. Subsequent investi- 
gation proved that 1878 was the year. Inci- 
dentally he fought very gallantly, and was 
fortunate enough to get through the war, 
being with the regiment when I left it in 
Germany. 

One huge fellow called Swanson, from North 
Dakota, turned up. Swanson was a fine 
soldier in every way, but the government had 
not figured on a man of Swanson's size. Never 
when he was in my command were we able to 
get a blouse to fit him. He turned out on 
parade, went to the trenches, and appeared on 
all other occasions in a ragged brown sweater. 

Some of the men we got could not speak 
English. One squad in particular we had 
to form in such a fashion that the corporal 
could act as interpreter. Once turning around 
a corner I came upon a group of four or five 
soldiers. All of them except one saluted 
properly. He merely grinned in a good- 
natured, friendly fashion. I started to read 
him the riot act, asking why he thought he 



Early Days in the Trenches 97 

was different from the rest of the men, what 
he meant by it, did he put himself in a class by 
himself, and so forth. About half way through 
one of the other men interrupted me. 

"Sir," he said, "that guy there he don't 
understand English." We found someone 
who could speak his language, had the matter 
explained to him, and found it was simply that 
he did not understand. He wanted to do 
what was right and he wanted to play the 
game. 

These replacements had very long hair and 
looked very shabby. One of the first things 
we did was to have their hair cut. There 
are many reasons why troops should keep 
their hair cut. It looks neater for one thing, 
but, far more important, it is sanitary, and 
where baths are few and far between short hair 
makes a great difference. Each company has 
a barber. Therefore the excitement was at 
fever pitch once in Company B when Lo- 
reno, its barber, deserted and got to Italy, 
taking with him the barber tools. As a result 
they used mule clippers for some time. 



98 Average Americans 

The men took great pride in the good name 
of their organization. One man, who after- 
ward proved himself an excellent soldier and 
a good American, came to us through the 
draft with no idea of loyalty to the flag, and 
with no real feeling for the country of any sort. 
He tried to desert twice, but we caught him 
both times, although on the last occasion he 
got as far as Marseilles. During the trial, 
while the court was sitting, he became fright- 
ened and broke away from the sentry who had 
him in charge. The alarm sounded for the 
guard, which immediately started out through 
the dark and rain on the jump. Then, with- 
out any orders, the escaped prisoner's own 
company turned out to help them, not because 
they had to, but because they felt he was 
hurting their company record. 

"What is it, Bill?" I heard one man call. 

"Aw, it's that guy Blank who's been giving 
Company B a black eye. He's beat it again, 
and we're going out to get him." 

About this time we were issued gas masks 
for the first time, thus furnishing us with 



Early Days in the Trenches 99 

another weapon, or means, of warfare about 
which we knew nothing. There was a small, 
active individual with glasses from general 
headquarters who was supposed to be our 
instructor. He used to give us long lectures 
on gas, in which he told us when gas had 
first been used in the past (I believe by the 
Greeks), how it had been employed in the 
beginning of the war, what gases had been 
used, and what their chemical components 
were. He told us at great length how to 
protect ourselves against the gas cloud, and 
then informed us that cloud gas was not used 
any longer. Later he took up the deadly ef- 
fects of mustard gas, and how we must imme- 
diately put on the gas masks when gas was 
evident. 

Toward the end of the lecture a deeply 
interested officer asked him how one could 
detect gas when it was present in dangerous 
quantities. He didn't know; so we left the 
lecture with full information as to obsolete 
methods of using gas, with full information as 
to its chemical components and effects, but 



ioo Average Americans 

with no information as to how to detect it 
when it was present in dangerous quantities. 

To try to put interest in the work and 
make it less hard on the men, we organized 
competitions in everything — competitions for 
the best platoon billet, competitions for the 
best platoon in close order drill, bayonet, etc. 
The prizes were almost negligible. Sometimes 
it would simply be that the victorious platoon 
was excused from some formation, but the 
men took to it like a duck to water. 

The officers became fully as keen as the men. 
I never shall forget the company commanders 
who, together with myself, formed the judges. 
They would always start off by saying in an 
airy manner it was for the good of the entire 
organization, and that they personally did not 
care whether their company won or not, pro- 
vided the battalion was benefited. As soon 
as the contest was under way, however, all 
was different, and it generally narrowed down 
to my doing all the judging. They would 
come up and protest the standing in competi- 
tions in the official bulletin for all the world 



Early Days in the Trenches 101 

as if they were managers of a big league base- 
ball team. 

About this time we organized a drum and 
bugle corps. This corps got so it could 
render very loudly and very badly a number 
of French and American tunes. We used 
it on all our long marches and maneuvers. 
We used it for reveille in the morning, 
for retreat in the evening, for close-order 
drill and all ceremonies. The men got so 
they thought a good deal of it, and fre- 
quently when marching through towns the 
troops would call out, "How about that 
band?" The doughboy likes to show off. I 
know, myself, that I always got a thrill of 
conscious pride going through a town, the 
troops marching at attention, colors flying, 
bugles playing, drums beating, and the women 
and children standing on the streets and 
shouting. 

We had, in addition to this early training, 
long days spent in maneuvers. I disapproved 
heartily of these maneuvers at the time, look- 
ing at them from the point of view of bat- 



102 Average Americans 

talion commander, who feels that any at- 
tempt on the part of the higher command 
to have maneuvers on a large scale is wast- 
ing valuable time that might be employed by 
him to better advantage. I am sure now 
that General Fiske, the head of the American 
training section, was right when he pre- 
scribed them and that the maneuvers con- 
tributed greatly to the ability of the First 
Division to keep in contact when it struck 
the line. The necessity for them, of course, 
was based on the fact that, great as was the 
ignorance of our junior officers, it was com- 
paratively far less than the ignorance of our 
higher command and staff. These maneuvers 
were bitter work for the soldiers who would 
be out all day, insufficiently clad and insuf- 
ficiently fed. Often a bloody trail was left 
in the snow by the men who at this time had 
virtually no boots. We used to call it Indian 
warfare and say we were chasing the last of 
the Mohicans over the Ligny sector. 

About this time we began to work into 
some complicated trench maneuvers. These 



Early Days in the Trenches 103 

were the ones the men liked. They threw 
hand grenades, fired trench mortars, and had 
a general Fourth of July celebration. 

Once we had a maneuver of this kind 
before General Pershing. The company offi- 
cers were lined up and afterward were asked 
their opinion as to how the men had con- 
ducted themselves. The first one to answer 
was a game little fellow named Wortley from 
Los Angeles, who was afterward killed. He 
said that he thought everything went off very 
well and he didn't think he had anything to 
criticize. The next lieutenant said that he 
thought that a few men of his company had 
got a little mixed up. This was a cheerful 
point of view for him to have, for, as a mat- 
ter of fact, two thirds of his company had 
gone astray. His company had been se- 
lected to deliver a flank attack over the top, 
but when this took place it consisted of one 
lieutenant and two privates. The mistake, 
however, was never noticed. 

Indeed, the generals and suchlike who come 
to maneuvers can rarely criticize the efforts of 



104 Average Americans 

the company and field officers, as they are not 
conversant with the handling of small units. 
Their presence at maneuvers is largely a 
question of morale. I remember during an 
exercise a higher officer, a very fine man to 
whom I afterward became devoted turned 
to me and said: "Have a trench raid." 

"When, sir?" I asked. 

"Immediately." 

Now, any junior officer knows that a trench 
raid cannot be staged the way you can fire a 
rocket. It has to be thought out in every 
detail and all concerned have to be familiarized 
with all phases of the plan in so far as it is 
possible. I got two very good lieutenants 
and, hastily outlining the situation, told them 
to go ahead. They made their plans in five 
minutes. I got some hand grenades for them 
and they gave a lively imitation. The trenches 
they raided did not exist, but were simply 
marked by tape on the ground. They did 
very well considering the circumstances, but 
the higher officer remarked to the assembled 
officers on its completion that he didn't know 



Early Days in the Trenches 105 

anything about raids, but this one did not 
appeal to him. It took all concerned quite 
a while to get over their feeling about this 
criticism. 

During this period we heard of B angler 
torpedoes. These torpedoes are long sections 
of tin tubing loaded with high explosive and 
are used for tearing up the enemy wire in 
order that the raiding party may get through 
into the trenches. Nothing of the kind was 
to be had from our people, but we obtained 
permission to send someone to try to get one 
from the various French ammunition dumps 
near by. Lieutenant Ridgely, my adjutant, 
went. He turned up after a hectic day with 
some long sections of stovepipe and a number 
of little tin cases. He explained that he had 
been unable to get the torpedoes, but that he 
had got some stovepipe and some very deadly 
explosive and perhaps we could make one. 

The next day we set out to follow his plan 
and two afternoons later completed our ex- 
periment, and gave an exhibition before the 
assembled officers of the brigade. The raiding 



106 Average Americans 

party were picked men, whom I considered 
among the best in the battalion. They all 
crawled out through the assumed "No Man's 
Land," holding on to one another's heels 
and endeavoring to look just as businesslike 
as possible. Their faces were blackened and 
they carried trench knives and hand grenades. 
The party which was to set off the torpedo 
lighted it, poked it under the wire, then leaped 
up and dashed through the gap in the wire to the 
trenches where the enemy were supposed to be. 
On account of the amateur workmanship, only 
a part of the charge went off, and I never shall 
forget my horror when I saw the party of my 
picked men galloping gallantly through the 
gap over this smoking, unexploded charge. I 
had visions of having to reorganize the battal- 
ion the next day. Fortunately the charge did 
not go off and all worked out well. 

Later we started a good deal of work at 
night, realizing how difficult it was for men 
to find their way and how necessary it was 
for them to get used to working in the dark. 
This training the men enjoyed. It was all 



Early Days in the Trenches 107 

in the nature of a competition. Reconnais- 
sance patrols would be started out to see 
how near they could approach to the dummy 
trenches without detection. In the dummy 
trenches other groups, with flares, etc., would 
keep a strict watch. Combat patrols would 
go out two at a time, each looking for the 
other. I recall one night when two patrols 
ran into one another suddenly. One of the 
privates was so overcome with zeal when 
he saw the supposed enemy that he made as 
pretty a lunge with his bayonet as I have ever 
seen and stabbed through both cheeks of the 
man opposite him. 

During the entire time we were in France 
we trained much along the lines indicated in 
the previous paragraphs, except that as we be- 
came veterans we naturally became more con- 
versant with the correct methods of instruction. 
For trained troops who are leaving the line 
it is my opinion that two points should be 
stressed above the rest — one is close-order 
drill and the other rifle practice. In the First 
Battalion we were particularly fortunate in 



108 Average Americans 

this period in having with us Captain Amel 
Frey and Lieutenants Freml and Gillian, all 
three of whom had served as N. C. O.'s in the 
regular Army. They understood close-order 
work, the service rifle, and the handling of men, 
and to them a large part of the early training 
is ascribable. 

The next point in the line to which we 
went was the Toul sector. This was much 
more lively than Arracourt, and here we 
had our first real taste of war. No Man's 
Land was not more than fifty to one hun- 
dred yards in width at many places. The 
whole terrain had been occupied for three 
years, and, as there had been many slight 
changes of position, abandoned trenches, filled 
half full of mud and wire, ran everywhere. 
Originally the front had been held with a 
large number of troops, but when we took 
it over, these had been reduced to such an 
extent that now one company would hold a 
kilometer in width. The line of support was 
furthermore about one kilometer in the rear. 
It was winter and snow and sleet and mud 



Early Days in the Trenches 109 

formed an ever-present trio. As always in 
trench warfare, the night was the time of 
activity. During the day everything was 
quiet; in walking through the trenches all 
one would meet was an occasional sentry. 

This night work was hard on the new 
men, for it is easy to see things at night 
even if you are an old soldier. If you are 
a recruit, you just can't help seeing them. 

"Well, Major, it's like this," was the way 
Sergeant Rose, an old-timer, put it to me 
when I was speaking to him in the front-line 
trenches one night. "I'm an old soldier, 
but when I stand and look out over this 
trench long enough, the first thing I know, 
those posts with the wire attached to them 
begin to do squads right and squads left, and 
if I ain't careful, I have to shoot them to 
keep them from charging this trench." 

Private Jones would imagine he saw a 
German patrol approaching him, fire all his 
hand grenades at them, and send in a report 
to the effect that he had repulsed a raid and 
that there were three or four dead Germans 



no Average Americans 

lying in front of his part of the line. Investi- 
gation would prove that an old stump or a 
sandbag had received all his attention. 

The division had fairly heavy casualties in 
this sector. The Germans staged a couple 
of raids. Also there were heavy artillery 
actions very frequently. Generally these 
would start around three o'clock in the morn- 
ing. First would come the preliminary straf- 
ing. During it the higher command would 
call up and ask what was going on, to which 
you replied N. T. R. — (nothing to report). 
Then the shelling would commence in earnest 
and all connections would go out at once. 
From then on, runners were the only method 
of communication until everything was over. 
One could never be sure that each strafing 
was not the preliminary to an assault. Straf- 
ing like this was very picturesque. Gener- 
ally I got into position where I could see as 
much of the front as I could. It is possible to 
guess by the intensity of shelling just what is 
getting ready, while hand grenades and rifle 
fire mean that an attack is taking place. First 



Early Days in the Trenches 1 1 1 

a few flashes can be seen, which increase until 
on all sides you see the bursts of the shrapnel 
and the noise becomes deafening. Then it 
gradually dies away and a thick acrid cloud of 
smoke lies over everything. 

During one of these actions a runner came 
in to report that the captain of the right 
flank company had been severely hit. The 
second in command had not, in my opinion, 
had quite enough experience, so I sent my 
scout officer back with the runner to take 
command They got to a bit of trench where 
shells were falling thick. 

"Lieutenant, you wait here while I see 
if we can get through," said the runner to 
the officer. 

"Why should you go rather than me?" 
asked the lieutenant. 

"Well," came the reply, "you see you are 
going to command the company. I'm just a 
runner. They can get lots more of me." 

A very good sergeant of mine, Ross by 
name, had his hand blown off in this sector. 

He was making a reconnaissance with a 



ii2 Average Americans 

view to a patrol, when a German trench mor- 
tar shell that had been imbedded in the para- 
pet went off under his hand. As he passed me 
he simply said: "Major, I am awfully sorry 
to leave you this early before the real game 
begins." 

Here we captured our first German prisoner. 
I doubt whether any German will ever be as 
precious to any of us as this man was. We 
had patrolled quite a good deal, but the Ger- 
mans had either stopped patrolling in the 
sector in front of us or we were unfortunate 
in not running into any of them. We felt at 
last that the only way to get a prisoner was to 
go over to the German trenches and pull one 
out. 

One night Lieutenant Christian Holmes, Ser- 
geants Murphy, McCormack, Samari (born 
in southern Italy), and Leonard, who was 
called Scotty and who spoke with a pronounced 
Irish brogue, were designated to raid a listen- 
ing post. They crawled on their bellies across 
No Man's Land, got through the maze of wire, 
and ran right on top of a German listening 



Early Days in the Trenches 113 

post. A prisoner was what they wanted, so 
Lieutenant Holmes, who was leading the party, 
leaped upon one of the two Germans and locked 
him in a tight embrace. The German's 
partner thereupon endeavored to bayonet 
Lieutenant Holmes, who was struggling in 
two feet of water with his captive, but was 
prevented by a timely thrust from Sergeant 
Murphy's bayonet. They seized the German, 
who was shrieking "Kamerad" at the top of 
his lungs, and dragged him back across No 
Man's Land at the double. 

When they came in with him we were 
as pleased as Punch. Indeed, we hardly 
wanted to let him go to the rear, as we had 
a distinct feeling more or less that we wanted 
to keep him to look at. He was a young, 
scrawny fellow, and gave us much information 
concerning the troops opposite us. Lieuten- 
ant Holmes and Sergeant Murphy received the 
Distinguished Service Cross for this work ; and 
well deserved it, for they showed the way and 
did a really hard job. Holmes told me after- 
ward that they had all agreed that they would 



ii4 Average Americans 

not come back until they had got their prisoner. 
They had decided that if they did not find him 
in the first front-line trenches they would go 
back as far as necessary, but they were going 
to find him or not come back. 

We began here also for the first time to 
play with that most elusive of all military 
amusements, the code. In order that the 
Germans, in listening in on our telephone 
conversations, might not know what we were 
about, everything was put in code or cipher. 
The high command issued to us the Napoleon 
code. The Napoleon code is written entirely 
in French. Only a few of us could read French, 
with the result that only a few could send 
messages. General Hines, then colonel of the 
Sixteenth Infantry, realized that this was a 
poor idea, so he made up a code of his own. 
This code went by the name of the Cauliflower 
Code, and the commanding officer, his adju- 
tant, etc., in every place were given dis- 
tinctive names. 

Conversation ran something like this — 
"Hello, hello, I want Hannibal. Hannibal 



Early Days in the Trenches 115 

is not there? Give me Brains. Brains, this 
is the King of Essex talking. Sunflower. 
No balloons, tomatoes, asparagus. No, No. 
I said no balloons! Oh, damn. My kitchens 
haven't come. Have them sent up." 

When we received rush orders to leave 
this sector, I tried to mobilize my wagon 
truck by telephone. The supply officers all 
went by the name of Sarah in the code. I 
would start off, "Hello, hello. This is the 
King of Essex talking. I want little Sarah. 
Little Sarah Van." Lieutenant Van, my sup- 
ply officer, would reply from the other side, 
"Hello, hello, is this the King of Essex talk- 
ing?" "It is." "Well, Major Roosevelt," 
then the connection would be cut. After much 
labor I got him again. I had just begun, 
"Balloons, radishes, carrots" when we were 
cut off again. The next time we got the 
connection we said what we had to say in 
plain English and quickly. 

One evening just after we had arrived in 
the front-line trenches, after a rest in the 
support position, the telephone buzzed. The 



n6 Average Americans 

adjutant leaped to it. "Yes, this is Blank. 
What is it? Yes, yes. The Napoleon code." 
And then for some thirty minutes, during 
which time the trench telephone ceased to 
work, was cut off, or simply went dead, the 
Adjutant took down a long string of numbers. 
At the end of that period he had a sheet of 
paper in front of him which looked for all 
the world like the financial statement of a 
large bank. He rushed to our portfolio 
where the sector papers were kept, yanked 
them out, ran over them in a hurry, and 
then turned to me with a blank look of grief: 
"Sorry, sir, we have left the code behind." 
We thought for a moment, then called back 
the sender, and said, "Sir, we have forgotten 
our code." He remarked blithely from the 
other end, "If the message had been an 
important one, I would not have sent it in 
code. I'll give it to you when I see you to- 
night." 

Our first real experience with gas came 
in this sector. As I said before, we had been 
taught how to put on and take off our gas 



Early Days in the Trenches 117 

masks, how gas was used by the ancients, 
what methods had been used and abandoned 
in the present war, what the chemical com- 
ponents were, what the effects were, but not 
how to detect it when it was present in danger- 
ous quantities. The result was that every- 
one was thoroughly apprehensive of gas and 
afraid he would not be able to detect it. 
We had all sorts of nice little appliances in 
the trenches to give the alarm. They con- 
sisted of bells, gongs, Klaxon horns, and beauti- 
ful rockets that burst in a green flare. A nerv- 
ous sentry would be pacing to and fro. It 
would be wet and lonely and he would think 
of what unpleasant things he had been told 
happened to the men who were gassed. A 
shell would burst near him. "By George, that 
smells queer," he would think. He would 
sniff again. "No question about it, that must 
be gas!" and blam! would go the gas alarm. 
Then from one end of the line to the other 
gongs and horns would sound and green rock- 
ets would streak across the sky and platoon 
after platoon would wearily encase itself in gas 



n8 Average Americans 

masks. One night I stood in the reserve 
position and watched a celebration of this 
sort. It looked and sounded like a witches' 
sabbath. 

After a certain amount of this we worked 
into a practical knowledge of gas. We found 
that there were only two methods of attack 
we had to fear: one was by cylinders thrown 
by projectors, and the other by gas shelling 
by the enemy artillery. With the former, 
an attack was often detected before it took 
place by our intelligence, and it was possible 
to tell by a flare that showed up along the 
horizon on the discharge of the projectors 
when the attack commenced. With the latter, 
after a little practice, it was perfectly simple 
to tell a gas shell from a H. E. shell, as it made 
a sound like a dud. The difficulty with both 
types of attack was not so much in getting the 
gas masks on in time, as there was always 
plenty of time for that, but rather in hold- 
ing heavily gassed areas, where burns and 
trouble of all sorts were almost impossible to 
avoid. 



Early Days in the Trenches 119 

It was in this Toul sector on March nth 
that my brother Archie was severely wounded. 
The Huns were strafing heavily and an attack 
by them was expected. He was redisposing 
his men when he was hit by a shell and badly 
wounded both in the left arm and left leg. 
Major A. W. Kenner, M. C, and Sergeant 
Hood were shelled by the Germans while they 
were moving out the wounded, among them 
my brother, when, because of the stretchers 
they were carrying, they had to walk over the 
top and not through some bad bits of trench. 
To Major A. W. Kenner, M. C, and Captain 
E. D. Morgan, M. R. C, is due great credit, 
not only in this operation, but in all the work 
to come. They never shrank from danger or 
hardship and their actions were at all times 
an inspiration to those around them. 



CHAPTER VII 

MONTDIDIER 

"And horror is not from terrible things — men torn to rags by a 
shell, 
And the whole trench swimming in blood and slush, like a 

Butcher's shop in Hell; 
It's silence and night and the smell of the dead that shake a 

man to the soul, 
From Misery Farm to Dead Man's Death on a nil report patrol." 

Knight-Adkin. 

DY the end of March we were veteran troops. 
All during the latter part of the month 
rumor had been rife about the proposed Ger- 
man drive. After nearly four years of war, 
Germany had crushed Russia, Rumania, Bel- 
gium, Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania; had 
dealt Italy a staggering blow, and was about 
to assume the offensive in France. On March 
28th the blow fell, the allied line staggered 
and split, and the Germans poured through 

the gap. 

120 



Montdidier 121 

The news reached us, and at the same time 
came orders to prepare for an immediate move. 
At once the Twenty-sixth American Division 
moved up in our rear, and with hardly any 
time for reconnaissance they took over from 
us. My battalion moved out and marched 
twelve kilometers to the rear; the last units 
checked in to where our trains were to meet us 
at about 5 a.m., and by 6 a.m. we were on the 
march again to the vicinity of Toul, where the 
division was concentrating. 

Here we were told that we were to be thrown 
into the path of the German advance. By 
this time all types of rumor were current. 
We heard of the Englishman Cary's remark- 
able feat, how he collected cooks, engineers, 
labor troops from the retreating forces, formed 
them into a fighting unit, and stood against 
the German advance, and how his brigade 
grew up over night. Cary, because of this 
feat, became, from captain in the Q. M. C., 
general of infantry. We heard of the thirty- 
six hours during which all contact was lost 
between the French left and the English 



122 Average Americans 

right, when a French cavalry division was 
brought in trucks from the rear of the line 
and thrown into the gap, and on the morning 
of the second day reported that they believed 
they had established contact with the Eng- 
lish. 

The next few days all was excitement. 
We formed the men and gave out our first 
decorations to Lieutenant Holmes and Ser- 
geant Murphy. At the same time we told 
them all that we knew of our plans. They 
were delighted. Men do not like sitting in 
trenches day in and day out, and being killed 
and mangled without ever seeing the enemy, 
and this promised a fight where the enemy 
would be in sight. 

We had a large, rough shack where we 
were able to have all the officers of the bat- 
talion for mess. Lieutenant Gustafson, an 
Illinois boy, who had, in civilian life, been a 
head waiter at summer hotels, managed the 
mess. We had some good voices among the 
officers, and every night after dinner there was 
singing. 



Montdidier 123 

Our supply officer, meanwhile, was annex- 
ing everything in sight for the battalion in 
the most approved fashion. One time his 
right-hand man, Sergeant Wheeler, passed by 
some tethered mules which belonged to a 
green regiment. He hopped off the ration 
cart he was riding, caught them, and tied them 
behind the cart. A mile down the road some 
one came pounding after them. 

"Hey! Where are you going with those 
mules?" Wheeler was equal to the occasion. 
"Are them your mules? Well, what do you 
mean by leaving them loose by the road? 
I had to get out and catch them. I have a 
good mind to report you to the M. P. for this." 
Eventually Wheeler compromised by warn- 
ing the man, and giving one of the mules back 
to him. 

Then the trains arrived. We had never 
traveled on a regular military train before. 
A military train is made up to carry a bat- 
talion of infantry ; box cars holding about forty 
men or eight animals each, and flat cars 
for wagons, kitchens, etc. We entrained 



124 Average Americans 

safely and got off all right, though we were 
hurried at the last by a message saying the 
schedule given us was wrong, and our train 
left one half hour earlier than indicated. 

We creaked off toward the southwest. We 
didn't know where we were going, but by 
this time we had all become philosophical 
and self-sufhcient and believed that if the 
train dropped us somewhere far away from 
the rest of the division, we would manage 
to get along by ourselves without too much 
trouble. 

After a day's travel we stopped at a little 
station. The only thing that we had to 
identify us was a long yellow ticket scratched 
all over with minute directions, which none of 
us could read. Here I was informed by a 
French guard that this was the regulating 
station and the American regulating officer 
was waiting to see me. I hopped off the train 
and ran back, finding Colonel Hjalmar Erick- 
son, who afterward became a very dear friend 
of mine and later commanded the regiment. 
He was busy trying to figure things out with 



Montdidier 125 

the French chef de la gave, an effort compli- 
cated by his inability to speak French. 

"My lord, Major, why aren't you the 
Seventh Field Artillery?" was Colonel Erick- 
son's greeting. 

As he was giving me the plans and maps 
I heard a whoop from the train outside. I 
ran to the door and found that, for some reason, 
best known to himself, the French engineer 
had started up again and my battalion was 
rapidly disappearing down the track. I 
started on the dead run after them. For- 
tunately some of the officers saw what 
was happening, and by force of arms suc- 
ceeded in persuading the engineer to stop the 
train. 

That night we detrained a couple of days' 
march from Chaumont-en-Vexin, where divi- 
sion headquarters were to be. We hiked 
through a beautiful peaceful country, the most 
lovely we had yet seen in France, billeting for 
the night in a little town where a whole com- 
pany of mine slept in an old chateau. At 
Chaumont we stayed for some few days, 



126 Average Americans 

maneuvering while the division was being fully 
assembled. 

From Chaumont we marched north for 
four days to the Montdidier sector. I never 
shall forget this march. Spring was on the 
land, the trees were budding, wild flowers 
covered the ground, the birds were singing. 
Our dusty brown column wound up hill and 
down, through patches of woods and little 
villages. By us, all day, toward the south 
streamed the French refugees from villages 
threatened, or already taken, by the Hun. 
Heavy home-made wagons trundled past, 
drawn by every kind of animal, and piled high 
with hay and farm produce, furniture, and odds 
and ends of household belongings. Tramping 
beside them or riding on them were women 
and children, most of them dazed and with a 
haunted look in their faces. Sometimes the 
wagons would be halted and their occupants 
squatted by the road, cooking a scanty meal 
from what they had with them. 

To us in this country, thanks to Providence, 
not to our own forethought or character, this 



Montdidier 127 

description is only so many words. Unless 
one has seen it, it is impossible to visualize 
the battered village, the column of refugees 
that starts at each great battle and streams 
ceaselessly toward Paris and southern France, 
the apple orchards and gardens torn beyond 
recognition, the desolation and destruction 
seemingly impossible of reparation. 

Nothing would have been better for our 
countrymen and women than for each and 
every one of them to have spent some time in 
the war zone. When I think of men of the 
type of Bryan and Ford, when I think of their 
self-satisfied lives of ease, when I think of 
what they did to permit disaster and death 
to threaten this country, it makes me wonder 
more than ever at the long-suffering kindness 
of humanity which permits such as they still 
to enjoy the benefits of citizenship in this 
great land which they have so signally failed 
to serve. 

When we took over the Montdidier sector 
it was not, nor did it ever become, the type 
found in the parts of the front where war- 



128 Average Americans 

fare had been going on without movement 
for more than three years. Trenches were 
shallow and scanty, and dugouts were almost 
lacking. Indeed, from this time on, with one 
exception, the division never held an estab- 
lished sector. The line at Montdidier had 
been established shortly after the break- 
through by the Germans, by a French terri- 
torial division which was marching north, 
expecting to relieve some friendly troops in 
front of it. They suddenly encountered, head 
on, the German columns that were marching 
south. Both sides deployed, went into posi- 
tion, and dug in where they were. The First 
Division took over from these troops. 

The first morning we were in the Mont- 
didier sector the Huns shelled us heavily. 
Immediately after they raided a part of our 
front line held by a platoon of D Company, 
commanded by Lieutenant Dabney, a very 
good fellow from Louisville, Ky. The Ger- 
mans were repulsed with loss. We suf- 
fered no casualties ourselves except from the 
German bombardment. The next evening 



Montdidier 129 

we picked up the body of the German ser- 
geant commanding the party, whom we had 
killed. 

We staged a very successful raid our- 
selves at about this time. The raiding party 
was composed of eighty-five men of D 
Company, under the command of Lieutenant 
Freml. The section of German trenches 
selected as the objective of the operation 
lay in a little wood about one hundred yards 
from our front line. Our patrols had reported 
that this part of the German line was particu- 
larly heavily held. In the first light of the 
half dawn the raiding party worked up into 
position, passing by through the mist like 
black shadows. At the agreed time our artil- 
lery came down with both the heavies and the 
75's, and the patch of woods was enveloped in 
clouds of smoke through which the bursts of 
the H. E. showed like flashes of lightning. In 
ten minutes the guns lifted and formed a box 
barrage, and the raiding party went over. 
So rapid was the whole maneuver that the 
German defensive barrage did not come down 



130 Average Americans 

until after the raiding party had reached 
the enemy trenches. 

The enemy trenches were found, as had been 
expected, full of Germans. Most of them 
were in dugouts or funk holes, and did not 
make a severe resistance. "Come out of 
there," the man in charge of the particular 
detail for that part of the trench would call 
down the dugout. If the Huns came out, they 
were taken prisoner. If they did not, a couple 
of incendiary grenades were thrown down the 
dugout and our men moved on. 

We captured, in all, thirty-three prisoners, 
of whom one was an officer, and probably 
killed and wounded as many more. Our losses 
were one killed and five slightly wounded . Un- 
fortunately the one man killed was Lieutenant 
Freml, the raid leader, who fell in a hand-to- 
hand combat. Freml was an old Regular 
Army sergeant and had fought in the Philip- 
pine Islands. After this war he was planning 
to return and establish a chicken farm. He 
always kept his head no matter what the 
circumstances were and his solutions for situ- 



Montdidier 131 

ations that arose were always practical. His 
men were devoted to him and would follow 
him anywhere. 

The men returned in high excitement and 
fine spirits. This was the most successful 
minor operation we had had so far. I was 
with the raiding party when it jumped off 
and then went to the point where they were 
to check in as they got back. There were 
four parties in all. As each returned with 
its collection of prisoners, the first thing 
that the officer or sergeant in command 
asked was, "Sir, did any of the rest get any 
more prisoners than we did?" When I told 
one of them, Lieutenant Ridgely, that an- 
other party had brought in two more prisoners 
than he had, he wanted to go back at once and 
get some more himself. 

A very gallant fellow, Bradley, my liaison 
sergeant, asked and was granted permission 
to go on the raid. He turned up at the 
checking-in point driving three Germans in 
front of him, his rifle over his shoulder, the 
bayonet covered with blood and a German 



i3 2 Average Americans 

helmet hanging from the end. As he passed 
I said, "Bradley, I see you have a new bon- 
net." He turned to me with a beaming smile 
and answered, "Why, Major, I heard that 
Mrs. Roosevelt wanted a German helmet and 
this was such a nice one that I stuck the man 
who had it on." Poor Bradley was, I believe, 
killed in the battle of Soissons, though I never 
have been able to get positive information. 

A curious instance of the way a man will 
carry one impression from an order in his mind 
and one only was given by this raid. Before 
the operation started I had given particular 
instructions to the effect that I wanted prison- 
ers and papers. This is literally what the 
party brought back, lots of prisoners and 
papers of all sorts. They took the crews of 
two machine guns but did not bring the guns 
back — that was not included in the instruc- 
tions. The company which made this raid 
was composed of raw recruits who had never 
had even the most rudimentary kind of mili- 
tary training until their arrival in Europe 
some five months before this date. They 



Montdidier 133 

were of all walks in life and all extractions. 
Many did not even speak the English tongue 
with ease. 

It was in this sector that the First Division 
staged the first American attack when the 
town of Cantigny was taken. The attack was 
made by the Twenty-eighth Infantry. My 
battalion, although not actually engaged in the 
assault, was in support and took over the 
extreme right of the line after the assault. It 
also helped in repelling counter-attacks deliv- 
ered by the Germans and in consolidating the 
position. Just preceding the Cantigny show 
the Germans strafed and gassed very heavily 
the positions held by us. I suspect that this 
was due to a certain amount of additional 
movement in the sector coincident with mov- 
ing the troops into position for the attack. 

After gassing us and strafing us heavily a 
raid in considerable force was sent over by the 
Germans. It was repulsed with heavy loss, 
leaving a number of prisoners in our hands. 
A Company took the brunt of this, the 
platoon commanded by Lieutenant Andrews 



134 Average Americans 

doing particularly well. Just after the repulse 
of the German attack I was up watching the 
right of the line, which was in trenches out 
in the open. The German machine guns and 
sharpshooters were very active. One of our 
men was lying behind the parapet. He had 
his helmet hooked on the end of his rifle and 
kept shoving it over the top. The Germans 
would fire at it. Then he would flag a miss for 
them by waving it to and fro in the same way 
the flag is waved for a miss when practice on 
the rifle range is going on. 

Our own losses were due in large part to 
the German artillery fire. In this operation 
a number of our most gallant old-timers 
were killed. Captain Frey, second in com- 
mand of the battalion, was shot twice through 
the stomach while leading reinforcements to 
his front line. When the stretcher bearers 
carried him by me, he shook my hand, said 
"good-by," and was carried away to the rear. 
After they had moved him a short distance 
he lifted himself up, saluted, said in a loud 
voice, "Sergeant, dismiss the company," and 



Montdidier 135 

died. Sergeant Dennis Sullivan, Sergeant 
O'Rourke, and Sergeant McCormick, not 
to mention many, many others, were killed 
or received mortal wounds at this time. 

The Cantigny operation was a success. We 
took and held the town, or rather the spot 
where the town had been, for it would be an 
exaggeration to say it was even a ruin. It 
was literally beaten flat. This piece of land 
had seen the German invaders for the last 
time. We learned a valuable lesson also, 
namely, not to make the disposition of the 
men too thick. In this operation we did, and 
this, and the fact that our objective was 
necessarily limited in depth, caused us casu- 
alties, as the enemy artillery was not reached 
and opened on us before we had time to dig in 
and consolidate the position we had taken. 

Not all our operations were necessarily as 
successful as the ones I have mentioned above. 
Raids were organized and drew blanks. At 
times orders would reach us so late that it was 
exceedingly difficult to attempt their execution 
with much chance of success. For example, 



13 6 Average Americans 

one night a message reached me that a prisoner 
was wanted for identification purposes by 
morning. 

As I recall, it happened as follows: The tele- 
phone buzzed; I answered, and the message 
came over the wire somewhat in this fashion: 
"Hello, hello, is this Hannibal? Hannibal, 
there is a friend we have back in the country 
[the brigadier general] who is very fond of 
radishes [prisoners] . He wants one for break- 
fast to-morrow morning without fail." This 
reached me at about ten or eleven o'clock. 
The raid had to be executed before daylight. 
In the meantime the plans had to be made, 
the company commander notified, the raid- 
ing party chosen, and all ranks instructed. 
Add to this that everything had to be done 
during the dark and you will see what a 
difficult proposition it was. 

I got hold of the company commander, got 
the men organized, telephoned to the artillery, 
and asked for five minutes' preparation fire on 
a certain point, joined the raiding party and 
went forward with it. Then the first of a 



Montdidier 137 

string of misfortunes happened. On account 
of the hurry and the difficulty of transmission, 
the artillery mistook the coordinate and 
fired three hundred meters too short, with the 
result that an effective bit of preparation fire 
was wasted on my own raiding party. By the 
time this preparatory firing upon our own 
raiding party was over, the Germans naturally 
understood that something was happening, 
for why would we strafe our own front- 
line trenches to no purpose? The result was 
that when the raid went over, every machine 
gun in the area was watching for them. They 
got to the opposing wire, ran into cross-fire, 
and, after various casualties, found it entirely 
impossible to get by the enemy wire, and 
worked their way back. 

As they were working back a senior sergeant, 
Yarborough by name, was sitting in a shell 
hole, machine-gun bullets singing by him, 
checking his party as it came in. Lieutenant 
Ridgely, who had been with the party, came 
up to him. As he crawled along, Yarborough 
said to him: "Lieutenant, this reminds me of 



138 Average Americans 

a story. There was once a guy who decided to 
commit suicide by hanging himself. Just 
about the time he done a good job of it the 
rope broke. He was sitting up on the floor 
afterward when I came in, a-rubbing his neck, 
and when he saw me, all he said was, 'Gee, but 
that was dangerous.'" 

During this period the German Chateau- 
Thierry drive was made, again scoring a clean 
break-through. The Second Division, which 
was coming up to our rear to relieve us, was 
switched and thrown in front of the enemy. 
Shortly after the Huns attacked toward the 
town of Compiegne, in an endeavor to 
straighten out the reentrant in their lines 
with its apex at Soissons. This latter attack 
passed by on our right flank. 

We, of course, got little but rumor. In 
the trenches you are only vitally concerned 
with what happens on your immediate right 
and left. What goes on ten kilometers away 
you know little about, and generally are so 
busy that you care less. "Sufficient unto the 
day is the evil thereof," is a proverb that holds 



Montdidier 139 

good in the line. In this last instance we 
were more interested because we believed that 
as a result of this attack the next point to 
stand a hammering would be where we were 
holding. Our policy, which held good through 
the war, was developed and put into action at 
this time. The orders were, all troops should 
resist to the last on the ground on which they 
stood. All movement should be from the 
rear forward and not to the rear. Whenever 
an element in the front line got in trouble, 
the elements immediately in the rear would 
counter-attack. This extended in depth back 
until it reached the division reserve, which, as 
our general put it, "would move up with him 
in command, and after that, replacements 
would be necessary." 

During the time when the Huns were mak- 
ing their Chateau-Thierry drive, Blalock, 
afterward sergeant of D Company, dis- 
tinguished himself by a rather remarkable 
piece of marksmanship. Noticing a pigeon 
fluttering over the trench, he drew his auto- 
matic pistol and killed it on the wing. The 



140 Average Americans 

bird turned out to be a carrier pigeon loosed by 
one of the attacking regiments the Germans 
were using in their drive toward the Marne, 
and carried a message giving its position as 
twelve kilometers deeper in France than our 
higher command realized. At the same time 
it identified a division that we had not heard 
of for three months, and indicated by the 
fact that it was signed by a captain who 
was commanding the regiment that the Ger- 
mans were finding it difficult to replace the 
losses among their officers. 

Instances occurred constantly which showed 
the spirit of both officers and men. A recruit, 
arriving one night as a replacement, got there 
just in time for a heavy strafing that the Ger- 
mans were delivering. A dud — that is a shell 
that does not go off — went through the side of 
the dugout and took both of his legs off above 
the knees. These duds are very hot, and this 
one cauterized the wounds and the man did not 
bleed to death at once. The platoon leader, 
seeing that something had gone wrong on the 
right, went over to look and found the man 



Montdidier 141 

propped up against the side of the trench. 
When he arrived, Kraakmo, the private, 
looked up at him and said, "Lieutenant, you 
have lost a hell of a good soldier." 

Another time, when we were moving for- 
ward to reenforce a threatened part of the 
line, a sergeant called O'Rourke was hit and 
badly wounded. As he fell I turned around 
and said: "Well, O'Rourke, they've got you." 
"They have sir," he answered, "but we have 
had a damned good time." 

Sergeant Steidel of A Company was a 
fine up-standing soldier and won the D. S. C. 
and the Medaille Militaire. He used to stay 
with me as my own personal bodyguard 
when I was away for any reason from head- 
quarters. Steidel was afraid of nothing. He 
was always willing and always clear-headed. 
When I wanted a report of an exact situation, 
Steidel was the man whom I could send to 
get it. We used to have daylight patrols. 
One day a patrol of green men went out to 
obtain certain information. They were stam- 
peded by something and came back into 



14 2 Average Americans 

the part of the trench where Steidel was. 
He went out alone as an example to them, 
and came back with the information. 

Lieutenant Baxter, whom I have men- 
tioned before, and a private called Upton 
patrolled across an almost impossible shell- 
beaten area to establish connection with the 
battalion on our left. They both went out 
cheerfully, and both, by some streak of luck, 
got back unhurt. Baxter, on returning, re- 
ported to ask if there was any other duty of 
a like nature that he could undertake right 
away. 

One night, when we were shifting a com- 
pany from support to a position on our left 
flank, a heavy bombardment came on. A 
number of the men were killed and wounded 
while moving up. One sergeant, by the name 
of Nestowicz, born in Germany, was badly hit 
and left for dead. I was standing in the 
bushes on the side of the valley waiting for 
reports when I saw this man moving unstead- 
idly toward me. I asked him what the matter 
was, and he replied that he had been hit, his 



Montdidier 143 

company had gone on and left him, and 
he had come up to ask me where he could 
find them. I said, " Hadn't you better go 
to the first aid, sergeant?" He said, "No 
sir, I am not hit that bad and I want to go 
back to my company. It looks as if they'd 
need me." 

Sergeant Dobbs, of B Company, badly 
wounded by a hand grenade, wrote me a let- 
ter, saying that he was well enough to come 
back, but the doctors would not let him 
come, and could not I do something about 
it. I took a chance and wrote, telling the 
medical authorities I would give him light 
work if they let him come back to the outfit. 
Dobbs turned up, was wounded again, and 
the last I heard of him was a letter written 
in late October, saying that he had never 
had the opportunity to thank me for getting 
him back. Mind you, getting him back 
merely meant, in his case, giving him the 
chance to get shot up again before he was 
thoroughly cured of his first wound. He 
finished by saying that he was in bad trouble 



144 Average Americans 

now, as part of his nose had gone the last 
time he was wounded and they would not 
even keep him in France, but were sending 
him back to the United States. His last line 
was the hope that he would get well soon 
so he could get back to the outfit. 

There was a young fellow called Fenessey 
from Rochester, New York, in B Com- 
pany. He was being educated for the Cath- 
olic priesthood. As soon as war was declared 
he enlisted and came over with the regiment. 
He did well and was a good man to have 
around the command because of his earnest- 
ness and humor. He was eventually made 
corporal of an automatic-rifle squad. His 
rifle was placed in the tip of a small patch of 
wood guarding a little valley that ran back 
toward the center of our position. These 
valleys were important, as down them the 
Germans generally delivered thrusts. The 
Huns, one morning, strafed heavily our posi- 
tion. Fenessey 's automatic rifle was destroyed 
and he was hard hit, his right arm torn off 
and his right side mangled. Fenessey knew 



Montdidier 145 

he was dying. The strafing stopped, the first- 
aid men worked in, and Fenessey was carried 
to the rear. They heard him mumble some- 
thing, listened carefully, and found he wished 
to be taken to his company commander. 
They carried him back to Lieutenant Holmes. 
When he saw Lieutenant Holmes, he said: 
"Sir, my automatic rifle has been destroyed. 
I think the company commander should send 
one up immediately to take its place." Fen- 
essey died ten minutes later. 

Quick promotion, unfortunately not in 
rank, simply in responsibility, occurred all 
the time. Of the four infantry company 
commanders which had started, only one 
was surviving when we left this sector. In 
each case a lieutenant took command of the 
company and did it in the finest shape pos- 
sible. Lieutenants Cathers and Jackson were 
killed here at the head of their platoons, 
and Lieutenants Smith and Gustafson died 
from the effect of wounds. Lieutenant Freml, 
who was killed in a raid, had numerous narrow 
escapes. 



J4 6 Average Americans 

I remember one time we were going together 
over the top on a reconnoitering party pre- 
paratory to redisposition of the troops. Freml 
had as his personal orderly a very bright little 
Jew from San Francisco — Drabkin by name, 
who had kept a junk-shop. The little fellow 
seemed to run true to former training, for he 
always went around festooned with pistols, 
"blinkers," notebooks, and everything con- 
ceivable. A shell hit beside them, Freml be- 
ing between this man and the shell. Freml was 
untouched, but the man was torn to pieces. 

One young fellow seemed, for a while, to 
bear a sort of charmed life. Unfortunately 
this did not last, and he was killed in the battle 
of Soissons. He was very proud of the things 
that had happened to him. One night, while 
I was inspecting the front trenches, he said 
to me, "Major, I have been buried by shells 
twice to-day. The last time I only had one 
arm sticking out so they could find me. All 
the other men in the dugout have been killed 
and I ain't even been scratched." 

It was here that Lieutenant Ridgely earned 



Montdidier 147 

for himself the nickname of the idiot strate- 
gist, which he went by for a long while in 
the battalion. The Huns were putting up a 
pretty lively demonstration on our left. A 
message reached me that they were attacking. 
I made my preparations to counter-attack, if 
necessary, and sent runners to the various 
units concerned to advise them of this plan. 
The runner who was bringing the message to 
Ridgely's platoon lost it in the shuffle. Run- 
ners are made to repeat messages verbally to 
take care of contingencies just like this. How- 
ever, this does not always work, and when 
he got to Ridgely, the only message he could 
remember was, "The Major orders you to 
counter-attack, and help the troops on our 
left." 

It seemed a pretty forlorn business to 
counter-attack with one platoon, but neither 
Ridgely nor the platoon considered this was 
anything which really concerned them. They 
hastily formed up and moved to the left. 
They got over and found that the Germans 
had been successfully repulsed and that they 



148 Average Americans 

were among our own troops. The Captain in 
charge of the company told Ridgely to go 
back. Ridgely thought for a moment and 
said, "No, my Major's orders were to counter- 
attack to assist the troops on the left," and it 
was only with difficulty that they persuaded 
him that he must not stage a little private 
adventure then and there against the German 
lines. 

In this sector we experienced our most 
severe gas attacks. It is a thoroughly unpleas- 
ant thing to hear gas shells coming over in 
quantity. Often an attack begins much as 
follows: It draws toward morning; the dig- 
ging parties file back toward their positions. 
Suddenly shelling begins to increase in vol- 
ume. Private Bill Smith notes a sort of a 
warbling sound overhead and remarks to Pri- 
vate Bill Jones, "Gee, Bill, they're gassing 
us." Next, reports come in from various 
sections that they are gassing Fontaine Woods, 
Cantigny Woods, and the valley between. 
You stand out on some point of vantage and 
listen to the shells singing over and bursting. 



Montdidier H9 

As day dawns you see a thick gray mist spread- 
ing itself through the valley. The men have 
slipped on their gas masks. The question 
now is, what's up? Just meanness on the part 
of the Huns, or is it part of some ulterior 
design to straighten the salient and nip off 
the two points of woods we are holding? 
How heavy is the gassing to be? How quickly 
will the wind carry it away? A thousand and 
one other questions. 

You send your gas officer up to test. You 
go up yourself and generally know as much as 
the gas officer. Our general experience was 
that the first gas casualties we had were the 
gas officers. You decide that, as nothing 
has developed up to this time, it is probable 
that if any attack is planned by the Huns it is 
not intended to take place this morning. You 
get your men out of the heavily gassed areas 
and try to determine where is the best place 
for them to be well protected, to cover practi- 
cally the same territory, and not to be too 
much exposed to the gas. By this time they 
have been sweating in their gas masks for 



i5° Average Americans 

three hours or more with the usual number of 
fools and accidents contributing to the casu- 
alties. You carefully redispose them while a 
desultory bombardment by the Germans adds 
to the general joy of life. You get them redis- 
posed. The wind changes, the gas is carried 
to the position where they are. You have 
to change them again. To add to the general 
complications, the chow which was brought 
up last night is spoiled. It has been in the 
gassed area and the men must go hungry 
until the next evening. You come back to 
your dugout and find that in some mysterious 
way the gas has gone down into the dugout, 
so you prop yourself in the corner of the 
trench and carry on from there. Altogether 
it is a happy and joyful occasion. Your 
one consolation rests in the fact that your 
artillery is now earnestly engaged in retali- 
ating on their infantry. 

Speaking of artillery, there is one thing 
that always used to fill us, the infantry, with 
woe and grief. A paper would come up, read- 
ing, "Nothing to report on the (blank) sector 






Montdidier 151 

except severe artillery duels." "Severe artil- 
lery duels" to the uninitiated means that the 
opposing artillery fights one with the other. 
This, however, is not the custom. Your 
artillery shells their infantry hard and then 
their artillery shells your infantry hard. This 
is an artillery duel. The infantry is on the 
receiving end in both cases. 

Our artillery was particularly good. Gen- 
eral Summerall, who commanded, I have been 
told, preached to his men that the primary 
duty of that arm was to help the infantry, and 
that to do this properly in all war of move- 
ment they should follow the advancing troops 
as closely as possible. Once I saw a battery of 
the Seventh F. A. wheel up and go into action 
not more than two hundred yards from the 
front line. We, on our part, endeavored to call 
uselessly on the artillery as little as possible. 

At times our own artillery would drop a few 
"shorts" into us but this is unavoidable and 
the infantry felt too strongly what had been 
done for them to pay much attention. 

In one of the German dugouts we captured, 



i5 2 Average Americans 

a lieutenant told me he found a sign reading, 
"We fear no one but God and our own 
artillery." 

Sector materiel is something that always 
adds interest to the life of the officers in 
trench warfare. Sector materiel consists of 
all varieties of articles, from tins of bully beef 
and rusty grenades to quantities of grubby, 
illegible orders and lists, and mangled maps. 
These remain in the sector and are turned over 
by each unit to the next succeeding. Theo- 
retically a careful inventory is made and each 
individual article checked each time. 

Moreover, to keep the higher command 
satisfied, there must be maps — legions of 
maps. These maps do not have to be accu- 
rate. Indeed, they cannot possibly be accu- 
rate, but they must be beautifully marked 
in red, blue, yellow, and green with a pretty 
"legend" attached. The higher command 
never knows if the maps are correct, but 
they do know if they are not beautifully 
marked. In each sector there must be, first, 
a map indicating where all the trenches are. 



Montdidier 153 

You, as commanding officer, are probably 
the only person who knows and you are too 
busy to put them down. Then there must 
also be maps indicating work in progress. 
Very generally they like a map to be turned 
in every day showing what work has been 
done during the night. How they expect 
anyone to do this is beyond anyone who has 
done it. Further, maps must show aban- 
doned trenches; still further, there must be 
what is known to the high command as maps 
indicating "alternate gas positions." "Al- 
ternate gas positions" are impossible to indi- 
cate. Everything depends on which way 
the wind is blowing and what place is gassed. 
But the higher command wants these maps 
and it is simpler to placate them than to fight 
with them. I had a fine artillery liaison officer, 
called Chandler. He had had some training 
in topography and he kindly agreed to take 
over the map question. When a message 
came up from the rear demanding a map 
showing alternate gas position, he would get 
out his stack of blue pencils and make, with 



i54 Average Americans 

exquisite care, the nicest and most symmetrical 
blue lines. He would number them in black, ar- 
range a margin between, putting green marks 
and yellow marks and red marks for other 
units; fold them up and send them back. 
It was quite simple for him. He did not have 
to consult anyone, it wasn't necessary to re- 
connoiter the ground ; the map would go in with 
the morning report and all would be happy. 

Another sport indulged in by the higher 
command was to change the main line of 
defense and re-allot the defense system of 
the sector. To be really qualified to do this, 
you should on no account have any knowl- 
edge of the actual terrain. Indeed, I think 
in all my experience I never received a defense 
map from the higher command where the 
individual making the map had been over the 
ground. All that you do, if you are the higher 
command, is to get a beautiful large scale map, 
draw broad lines across it and then dotted 
lines to indicate boundaries. For nearly a 
month I defended a sector where the map was 
entirely wrong. Two patches of woods were 



Montdidier 1 55 

represented as in a valley, whereas they were 
on a hill. This worried neither the higher 
command nor me. The higher command did 
not know that the map was wrong; they 
had sent me their beautiful little plans. I 
sent them equally beautiful ones without 
debating the matter, and all were satisfied. 

I remember one general who commanded 
the brigade of which I was a member. His 
hobby was switch lines. A switch line is 
simply a trench running approximately per- 
pendicular to the front, where a defensive 
position can be taken up in case the enemy 
breaks through on the right or left and where- 
by you form a defensive flank. The old boy 
would come up, solemn as a judge, and ask me 
where my switch lines were to be put. With 
equal solemnity I would explain to him. 
After talking for a half an hour he would 
ask confidentially, "Major, what is a switch 
line?" With equal solemnity I would explain 
to him and conversation would cease. Three 
days thereafter we would go through the 
same thing again. The old fellow had heard 



15 6 Average Americans 

someone talking about a switch line once 
and somehow felt that it counted a hundred 
in game to have one. 

Another indoor sport of the high com- 
mand was a report for plans of defense. A 
plan of defense consisted of maps and long 
screeds indicating just where counter-attacks 
were to be launched when parts of the front 
line were taken by the enemy. They were 
beautiful things, pages and pages long. They 
were as gay in color as Joseph's proverbial coat, 
and when things broke, circumstances were 
always such that you did something entirely 
different from any of the plans. 

Still another sport was patrol reports and 
patrolling. The patrols were, according to 
instructions, arranged for by the higher com- 
mand because the higher command knew 
nothing and could know nothing of the par- 
ticular details that govern in any individual 
section of the front. They would send down 
to the battalion commander and demand 
statements, for their revision, as to what his 
patrols were to be for the night, when they 



Montdidier 157 

were to go out, what they were to do, etc. 
The battalion commander would send them 
his patrol sheet and then by the above-men- 
tioned code they would endeavor to confer 
with him and debate the advisability of certain 
of his actions. Again experience taught the 
way out. You agreed with everything they 
said, and did what you originally intended. 
Next day they would want a map indicating 
exactly the points traversed by the patrol. 
Knee-deep in water in a filthy dugout, your 
adjutant or intelligence officer would make 
them this map. The map, like most maps, 
was for decorative purposes. No patrol wan- 
dering in a pitch-black night in the rain, stum- 
bling on dead men, snarling itself in wire, lying 
flat on its bellies when the Hun flares shot up, 
could possibly tell exactly where it had gone. 
This was, happily, not known to the higher 
command, so they rested in blissful ignorance. 
I cannot leave the question of maps with- 
out discussing the all-absorbing topic of coor- 
dinates. A coordinate is a group of numbers 
which indicate an exact point on the map. 



158 Average Americans 

If you have firmly got the system in your head, 
you can find the point accurately on the map. 
Any man, however, who thinks he can go and 
sit on a coordinate on the actual ground is 
either a lunatic or belongs to the higher com- 
mand. Incidentally, in demanding reports of 
patrols, alternate gas positions, etc., the order 
usually, reads, "Battalion commander will 
furnish reports with coordinates." 

When I was recovering from a wound in 
my leg, I attended for two weeks our staff 
college. This college was well conceived 
and did excellent work, but nowhere were 
more evident the grievous faults of our unpre- 
paredness. A good staff officer should have 
had practical experience with troops. If he 
has not had this experience he takes the thumb 
rules too literally and does not realize that they 
are simply rules to govern in general. We 
had practically no officers with this experience. 
The result was that the students, good fellows, 
most of them men who had never been in 
action, attached too much importance to the 
figures and did not realize it was the theory 



Montdidier 1 59 

that was important. Infantry, according to 
staff problems, always marches four kilometers 
an hour. March graphics are drawn with 
columns which clear points, with three hun- 
dred meters to spare between them and the head 
of the next column after both columns have 
marched ten kilometers to the point of junc- 
tion. No account is taken of the fact that 
rarely, if ever, does infantry exceed in rate 
of march three and one half kilometers under 
the ordinary conditions prevailing in France, 
and that bad weather, bad roads, etc., bring it 
to three kilometers. What a commanding 
officer of troops must bear in mind is not 
simply getting his troops to a given point, 
but getting them to that given point in such 
shape that they are able to perform the 
task set them when they arrive. Further- 
more, roads given on the map are accepted 
with the sublime faith of a child. I remem- 
ber once having my regiment on the march 
for twelve hours because the trail on which 
we had all been ordered to proceed necessi- 
tated the men going single file, and the in- 



160 Average Americans 

fantry of a division single file stretches out 
indefinitely. 

Our troops had now begun to arrive in 
France in large numbers. It was more than 
a year after the commencement of the war 
before this was effected. The inability of 
our national administration to bring itself 
to the point where it considered patriotism 
as above politics was largely responsible for 
this. Every move forward toward the active 
pushing of the war was the result of the 
pressure of the people on Washington. When 
I say that our troops were coming across in 
large numbers, let it be borne in mind that, 
though the men did come, munitions and weap- 
ons of war did not. The Browning auto- 
matic rifle, for example, to my mind one of the 
greatest weapons developed by the war, was 
invented in the United States in the summer 
of 19 1 7. When the war finished it had just 
been placed for the first time in the hands of a 
limited number of our divisions; my division, 
the First, never had them until a month after 
the armistice. We used the old French chau- 



Montdidier 161 

chat, a very inferior weapon. None of our 
airplanes had come, and the death of many of 
our young men was directly traceable to this, 
as they, of necessity, used inferior machines. 
Our cannon was and remained French and its 
ammunition was French. Our troops were at 
times issued British uniforms and many of 
the men objected strenuously to wearing them 
on account of the buttons with the crown 
stamped on them. Our supply of boots, up to 
and including the march into Germany, was 
composed in part of British boots. These 
boots had a low instep and caused much foot 
trouble. These are facts that no amount of 
words can cover, no speeches explain away. 



CHAPTER VIII 



SOISSONS 



"And drunk delight of battle with my peers, 
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy." 

Tennyson. 

T^ARLY in July rumors reached us that we 
were going to be relieved. At first we did 
not attach any importance to this, as we had 
heard many rumors of a like nature during the 
months we had been in the sector. At last, 
however, the French officers came up to re- 
connoiter, and we knew it was true. We were 
relieved and marched back to some little vil- 
lage near the old French town of Beauvais. 
Everyone was as happy as a king. Here we 
heard that the plan was to form a corps of the 
Second Division and our division, train and 
recruit them for a month, and make an offen- 
sive with us some time late in August or Sep- 
tember. General Bullard, our division com- 

162 



Soissons 163 

mander who had been, in turn, colonel of the 
Twenty-eighth Infantry, brigadier general 
commanding the Second Brigade, and division 
commander, was to be corps commander. 
This pleased us very much, as we had great 
confidence in him. 

We had been in these villages only for a 
few days when orders reached us to entruck 
and proceed to some towns only a short dis- 
tance from Paris. This appealed to us all, 
for if we were going to train and rest for a 
month, no more delightful place could be chosen 
for one and all than the vicinity of Paris. 

The buses arrived and all night we jolted 
southwest through the forest of Chantilly. 
By morning we arrived and detrucked and 
the brown columns wound through the fresh 
green landscape to the charming little gray 
stone towns. The town where we were to 
stay was called Ver. It was built on rolling 
country and its gray cobble-paved streets 
twisted and wound up hill and down through 
a maze of picturesque gray houses in whose 
doors well-dressed, bright-cheeked women and 



1 64 Average Americans 

children stood watching us. On the hill were 
the remains of an old wall and chateau, and 
at the foot, through a broad meadow shaded 
with trees, a fair-sized brook rippled. Jean 
Jacques Rousseau lived and wrote there. 
How he could have been such a hypocrite and 
have lived in such a charming place is more 
than I can see. 

The men were delighted. "Say, Buddie, 
this is some town; look at that stream!" — 
"Bonne billets."— "Let's fight the rest of the 
war here" — were some of the remarks I heard 
as the column swung in. 

Everything was ideal. The stream above 
mentioned furnished a bathtub for the com- 
mand. We had had no opportunity for about 
two months to thoroughly bathe, as we had 
been on active work the entire time, and you 
can imagine in just what condition we were. 
To put it in the words of one of my company 
commanders, "The command was as lousy 
as pet coons." The first day we spent in 
orienting ourselves, getting the kitchens ar- 
ranged and the billets comfortable. Mean- 



Soissons 165 

while the troops were down bathing in the 
stream, to the admiring interest of the French 
inhabitants, who lined the bridge. To our 
staid Americans the unconventional attitude 
of interest in bathing troops displayed by the 
French inhabitants of all ages and both sexes 
was a source of constant embarrassment. I 
have known a platoon sergeant to guide his men 
to quite a distant point to take their baths. 
When I asked him why, he replied, "Sir, it 
isn't decent with all them frogs looking on." 
That evening, at officers' meeting, every- 
one was on the crest- of the wave, "sitting on 
the world," as the doughboy puts it. The 
officers established their mess in various 
houses, and I remember to this day Lieutenant 
Kern, as gallant an officer as ever it was my 
pleasure to know, who was mortally wounded 
some three days from this time, telling me that 
they had the prettiest French girl in all of 
France as a waitress at his company mess and 
that they were all going to give her lessons in 
English. We talked over training and made 
all arrangements for a long stay. The only 



1 66 Average Americans 

dissenting voice was that of the medical officer, 
Captain E. D. Morgan. He, Cassandra-like, 
prophesied that the town was too nice and 
we would be moved soon. 

Next morning, while I was out going over 
the village, selecting drill grounds and plan- 
ning the schedule, a motorcycle orderly arrived 
and handed me a message which read, "You 
will be prepared to entruck your battalion at 
two this afternoon. ' ' This meant no rest for us. 
We realized that a move on our part now 
meant one thing and one thing only, that 
something serious had arisen, and that we were 
going in again. Rumor had been rife for two 
or three days past that the big Hun offensive 
was about to start again. In the army, among 
the front-line troops, practically all you get is 
rumor about what is happening daily. Where 
the rumor starts from it is impossible to say, 
but it travels like lightning. Officers' call 
was sounded, and when they had assembled, 
I read them the order and told them it was 
my opinion we were going into a big battle 
right away. The men were immediately as- 



Soissons 167 

sembled and told the same thing. We always 
felt that all information possible should be 
given to the men. Instead of the command 
being downcast at the idea of leaving their 
well-deserved rest, their spirits rose. Imme- 
diately bustle and preparation was evident 
everywhere in the town. 

By one o'clock the truck train was creaking 
into place on the road. Oddly enough the 
truck train was made up of White trucks, 
made in Cleveland, with Indo-Chinese drivers 
and was under the command of a French 
officer. The troops filed by in columns of 
twos toward the entrucking point. The men 
were laughing and joking. "They can't do 
without us now, Bill." "Say, Nick, look 
over there" (pointing toward a grave yard), 
"them's the rest billets of this battalion, and 
that" (indicating a rather imposing tomb) "is 
the battalion headquarters." Many of them 
were singing the national anthem of the 
doughboy, Hail! Hail! the Gang's All Here. 

I got into the automobile of the French 
commander of the train, taking with me Lieu- 



1 68 Average Americans 

tenant Kern, as he was pretty well played out 
and I wanted to spare him as much as possible. 
The French train commander had no idea 
what our ultimate destination was. All he 
knew was a route for about sixty kilometers, 
at the end of which he was to report for further 
orders at a little town. As we ran up and 
down the column of trucks checking the train 
to make sure that all units were present and 
all properly loaded, the men were singing and 
cheering. 

As all afternoon we jolted northward through 
clouds of dust, rumors came in picked up from 
French officers on the roadside. The Hun had 
attacked in force east and west of Rheims in a 
desperate attempt to break the French army 
in two. East of Rheims they had met with 
a stone-wall resistance by Gouraud's army 
and been hurled back with heavy loss. West 
of Rheims their attack had been more success- 
ful, and they were reported to have broken 
through, crossed the Marne, and to be now 
moving on Chalons. 

As night fell the jolting truck train pressed 



Soissons 169 

ever farther north. At the regulating station, 
by the shaded flare of an electric torch, we 
got our orders : we were to proceed to Palesne. 
We guessed on receiving them what our mis- 
sion was. We were pushing straight north 
into the reentrant into the German lines, at 
the peak of which was Soissons. Our destina- 
tion was a large wood. We realized that we 
were probably to form part of an offensive to 
be made against the Hun right flank, which 
should have as its object, first, by pressure at 
this point, to stop the attack on Chalons; 
second, if it was possible, to penetrate far 
enough to force the evacuation of the Chateau- 
Thierry salient by threatening their lines of 
communication. In the early dawn the troops 
detrucked, sloshed through the mud, and 
bivouacked in the woods. Every care possible 
was taken to get the troops under cover of the 
woods and the trucks away before daylight 
in order to avoid any possible chance of ob- 
servation by the Germans. 

All day we became more certain that our 
guess as to our probable mission was correct. 



170 Average Americans 

We heard that the Foreign Legion and the 
Second American Division had come up on 
our right. We knew that our division, the 
Foreign Legion, and the Second Division, 
would not be concentrated at the same point 
if it did not mean a real offensive. 

Soon after the orders for the attack were 
given us. Apparently the idea was to stake 
all on one throw. Marshal Foch had decided 
on a counter-offensive in this part and had 
delegated to General Mangin, commander of 
the French army, the task of putting it into 
execution. Mangin desired to make this of- 
fensive, if possible, a complete surprise. All 
care was used that no unnecessary movement 
took place among our troops in the back area. 
We were not to take over the position from the 
French troops holding the front line, as was 
generally customary for the attacking troops 
before an action, but rather to march up on 
the night of the offensive and attack through 
them. Fortunately, from the point of view 
of secrecy, the night before the attack it 
rained cats and dogs. The infantry slogged 



Soissons 17 1 

through the mud, up roads cut to pieces by 
trucks and over trails ankle deep in water. 
The artillery skittered and strained into place. 
The tanks clanked and rattled up, break- 
ing the columns and tearing up what was left 
of the road. It was so dark you could hardly 
see your hand before your face. 

As a part of the element of surprise there 
was to be but a short period of preparatory 
bombardment. The artillery was to fire what 
the French call "the fire of destruction" for 
five minutes on the front line, and then to 
move to the next objective. This bombard- 
ment was to commence at 4.30, and at 4.35 
the men were to go over the top. 

The troops all reached the position safely 
by about 4 o'clock. Our position lay along 
the edge of a rugged and steep ravine. The 
rain had stopped and the first faint pink of the 
early summer morning lighted the sky. Abso- 
lute silence hung over everything, broken only 
by the twittering of birds. Suddenly out of 
the stillness, without the warning of a prelimi- 
nary shot, our artillery opened with a crash. 



17 2 Average Americans 

All along the horizon, silhouetted against the 
pale pink of the early dawn, was the tufted 
smoke of high explosive shells, and the burst 
of shrapnel showed in flashes like the spitting 
of a broken electric wire in a hailstorm. After 
the bombardment had been going on for two 
or three minutes, D company, on the right, 
became impatient and wanted to attack, and 
I heard the men begin to call, "Let's go, 
let's go!" 

At 4.35 the infantry went over. The sur- 
prise was complete. Germans were killed 
in their dugouts half dressed. One of the 
units of the division captured a colonel and 
his staff still in his dugout. So rapid was the 
advance on the first day that the German 
advance batteries were taken. The French 
cavalry followed up our advance, looking for 
a break-through. By night all the objectives 
were taken and the troops bivouacked in the 
captured position. During the night Hun air- 
planes flew low over us dropping flares and 
throwing small bombs. Next morning the 
attack started again. We ran into much 










AN AIR RAID 

Drawn by Captain George Harding, A. E. F., August, 1918 



Soissons 173 

machine-gun fire. "Only those who have 
danced to its music can know what the 
mitrailleuse means." 

The Germans now rushed up all the reserves 
they could to hold this threatened point. On 
the second day we took prisoners from four 
Hun divisions in front of the regiment. One 
prisoner told us he had marched twenty-four 
kilometers during the preceding night. For 
five days the advance continued, until the 
final objective was taken and we held the 
Chateau-Thierry-Soissons railroad and the Ger- 
mans ordered a general retreat. I was not 
fortunate enough to see the last half of this 
battle, as I was wounded. I heard about it, 
however, from men who had been all through 
it. 

Our casualties were very heavy. At the 
end of the battle, companies in some cases 
came out commanded by corporals, and bat- 
talions by second lieutenants. In the battle 
the regiment lost most of the men that built 
it up. 

Colonel Hamilton A. Smith, as fine an officer 



174 Average Americans 

and as true a gentleman as I have ever known, 
was killed by machine-gun fire while he was 
verifying his outpost line. Major McCloud, 
a veteran of the Philippines who had served 
with the British for three years, was killed 
on the second day. I have somewhere a note 
written by him to me shortly before his death. 
He was on the left, where heavy resistance 
was being encountered. I had just sent him 
a message advising him that I was attacking 
in the direction of Ploisy. His answer, which 
was brought by a wounded runner, read : ' ' My 
staff are all either killed or wounded. Will 
attack toward the northeast against machine- 
gun nests. Good hunting!" 

Lieutenant Colonel Elliott was killed by 
shell fire. Captain J. H. Holmes, a gallant 
young South Carolinian, was killed. He left 
in the United States, a young wife and a baby 
he had never seen. Captains Mood, Hamel, 
and Richards were killed. Lieutenant Kern, 
of whom I spoke before, was mortally wounded 
while gallantly leading his company. Lieu- 
tenant Clarke died in the hospital from the 



Soissons 175 

effect of his wounds a few days later. Clarke 
was a big, strapping fellow who feared nothing. 
Once he remarked to me: "Yes, it is a messy 
damn war, sir, but it's the only one we've got 
and I guess we have got to make the best of 
it." These are only a few of those who fell. 
Both Major Compton and Major Travis were 
wounded. 

The Twenty-sixth Infantry was brought 
out of the fight, when it was relieved, by Lieu- 
tenant Colonel (then Captain) Barnwell Rhett 
Legge, of South Carolina. Colonel Legge 
started the war as a second lieutenant. When 
I first knew him he was adjutant of the Third 
Battalion. Later he took a company and com- 
manded it during the early fighting. He was 
then made adjutant of the regiment, and two 
or three times I recall his asking the Colonel 
to let him go back with his company. Cap- 
tain Frey, killed earlier, who was originally 
my senior company commander, thought very 
highly of him and used to "josh" him contin- 
ually. Once Legge took out a raiding party 
and captured a German prisoner fifty-four 



176 Average Americans 

years old. Frey never let him hear the last 
of it, asking him if he considered it a sportsman- 
like proceeding to take a man of that age, 
and saying that a man who would do such a 
thing would shoot quail on the ground and 
catch a trout with a worm. All during my 
service in Europe, Legge served with me. 
During the latter part he was my second in 
command in the regiment. I have seen him 
under all circumstances. He was always cool 
and decided. No mission was too difficult 
for him to undertake. His ability as a troop 
leader was of the highest order. In my opin- 
ion no man of his age has a better war record. 

An amusing incident occurred in Lieutenant 
Baxter's platoon during the battle. The men 
were advancing to the attack perhaps a couple 
of hundred yards from the Germans. They 
were moving forward in squad columns as 
they were going through a valley where they 
were defiladed from machine-gun fire, though 
the enemy was firing on them with its artillery. 
Suddenly Baxter heard rifle fire behind him. 
He wheeled around and saw that a rabbit had 



Soissons 177 

jumped up in front of the left of the platoon 
and the men were firing at it. 

The worst strain of the battle came during 
the last two days when casualties had been 
so heavy as to take off many of the field officers 
and most of the company commanders, when 
the remnants of the regiments pressed forward 
and captured Berzy-le-Sec and the railroad. 
It is always more difficult for the juniors in 
a battle like this, for they generally do not 
know what is at stake. General Frank Parker 
told me how, during the fourth day, when 
battalions of eight hundred men had shrunk 
to a hundred and it looked as if the division 
would be wiped out, and even he was wonder- 
ing whether we were not losing the efficiency 
of the division without getting a compensatory 
gain, General C. P. Summerall, the division 
commander, came to his headquarters and 
said: "General, the German high command 
has ordered the first general retreat since the 
first battle of the Marne." 

General Summerall took command of the 
division just before Soissons, when General 



178 Average Americans 

Bullard was given the corps. He had previ- 
ously commanded the artillery of the division. 
The division always regarded him as their 
own particular general. He was known by 
the nickname of "Sitting Bull." He is, in 
my opinion, one of the few really great troop 
leaders developed by us during the war. At 
this battle General Summerall is reported to 
have made a statement which was often quoted 
in the division. Some staff officer from the 
corps had asked him if, after the very heavy 
casualties we had received, we were capable 
of making another attack. He replied: "Sir, 
when the First Division has only two men left 
they will be echeloned in depth and attacking 
toward Berlin." 

Beside the First Division, the Foreign 
Legion and the Second Division were meeting 
the same type of work and suffering the same 
losses. No finer fighting units existed than 
these two. A very real compliment that was 
paid the Second Division was the fact that the 
rank and file of our division was always glad 
when circumstances ordained that the divisions 



Soissons 179 

should fight side by side. I have often heard 
the junior officers discussing it. 

The division was relieved by the Seaforth 
and Gordon Highlanders. When I was going 
to the rear, wounded, I passed their advancing 
columns. They were a fine set of men — tall, 
broad-shouldered, and fit looking. They, too, 
were in high spirits. The morale of the Allies 
had changed within twenty -four hours. They 
felt, and rightly, that the Hun had been 
turned. Never from this moment to the end 
of the war did it change. 

This Highland division showed its apprecia- 
tion of the American division by the following 
order that was sent to our higher command : 

Headquarters 1st Division, 
American Expeditionary Forces, 

France, August 4th, 19 18. 

General Order 
No. 42. 
The following is published for the information of 
all concerned as evidence of the appreciation of the 
15th Scottish Division of such assistance as this 
Division may have rendered them upon their tak- 



180 Average Americans 

ing over the sector from us in the recent operation 
south of Soissons : 

15th Scottish Division No. G-705 24-7-18 

To General Officers Commanding, 
First American Division. 

I would like on behalf of all ranks of the 15th 
Division to express to you personally, and to your 
staff, and to all our comrades in your splendid 
Division, our most sincere thanks for all that has 
been done to help us in a difficult situation. 

During many instances of taking over which we 
have experienced in the war we have never received 
such assistance, and that rendered on a most 
generous scale. In spite of its magnificent suc- 
cess in the recent fighting, your Division must have 
been feeling the strain of operations, accentuated 
by very heavy casualties, yet we could discern no 
symptom of fatigue when it came to a question of 
adding to it by making our task easier. 

To your artillery commander (Col. Holbrook) 
and his Staff, and to the units under his command, 
our special thanks are due. Without hesitation 
when he saw our awkward predicament as to artil- 
lery support the guns of your Division denied 
themselves relief in order to assist us in an attack. 
This attack was only partly successful, but the 
artillery support was entirely so. 



Soissons 181 

Without the help of Colonel Mabee and his 
establishment of ambulance cars, I have no hesi- 
tation in saying that at least four hundred of our 
wounded would still be on our hands in this area. 

The 15th Scottish Division desires me to say that 
our hope is that we may have opportunity of 
rendering some slight return to the First American 
Division for all the latter has done for us, and fur- 
ther that we may yet find ourselves shoulder to 
shoulder defeating the enemy in what we hope is 
the final stage of this war. 

Signed: H. L. Reed, 

Major General 
Comdg. 15 th Scottish Div. 

By Command of Major General Summerall : 
H. K. Loughry, 
Major, F. A. N. A., 

Div. Adjt. 

The Highlanders cheered as the wounded 
Americans passed by them. One lieutenant 
called out to me, "How far have you gone?" 
I answered, "About six kilometers." "Good," 
he said. "We'll go another six." 

After the battle the division was withdrawn 
to near Paris. Many of the officers came to 
see me, where I was laid up with a bullet 



1 82 



Average Americans 



through the leg. Major A. W. Kenner, the 
regimental surgeon, who had again distin- 
guished himself by his gallantry, and Captain 
Legge were both in, looking little the worse 
for the wear. 



CHAPTER IX 

ST. MIHIEL AND THE ARGONNE 

" ' Millions of ages have come and gone, ' 
The sergeant said as we held his hand; 
4 They have passed like the mist of the early dawn 
Since I left my home in that far-off land. ' " 

Ironquill. 

T^vURING the next couple of months, while I 
was laid up with my wound, the regiment 
first went to a rest sector near Pont-a-Mousson. 
There replacements reached them, wounded 
men returned, and they gradually worked up 
to their full strength again. 

They enjoyed themselves fully. It was one 
of those sectors so common on the east of the 
Western Front where by tacit agreement little 
action took place. The nature of the country 
and its distance from the great centers of 
France made many parts of the front impracti- 
cable for an offensive either by the Hun or 

183 



1 84 Average Americans 

ourselves. In these sectors a division such 
as ours, worn by hard fighting, or a division 
of green or old men, held the line, a handful 
of men on each side occupying long stretches. 
A few shells would come whistling over during 
the day and that was all. 

Everybody used to look back on their 
pleasant times in this sector. They got fresh 
fish by the thoroughly illegal method of throw- 
ing hand grenades in some near-by ponds, 
while fresh berries were plentiful even in the 
front line. It was midsummer and the weather 
was pleasantly warm. Altogether, if you had 
to be at war, it was about as comfortable as 
possible. 

An odd incident of this period occurred to 
a recruit who was sent out the first night to a 
listening post. In the listening post was a 
box on which the guard sat. At some time 
during the previous night the Germans had 
crept up and put a bomb under this box. 
After looking around a little the recruit felt 
tired and sat down on the box. A violent 
explosion followed. Right away a patrol 



St. Mihiel and the Argonne 185 

worked out from our lines to see what had 
happened. When they got there they looked 
carefully through every ditch or clump of 
bushes in the vicinity, but they could not find 
a trace of the man. He was reported as dead, 
blown to bits. On the march up into Ger- 
many that missing recruit reported back to 
the regiment on his return from a German 
prison camp. Instead of being blown to 
pieces he had simply been blown into the 
German lines. When he came to, he was 
being carried to the rear on a stretcher, and 
he spent the rest of the war as a prisoner, 
little the worse for wear, except for a few scars. 
Shortly after this the St. Mihiel operation 
took place. The plan was to nip off the salient 
by a simultaneous attack on both sides. Our 
division was the left flank unit of the forces 
attacking on the right of the salient, being 
charged with the mission of making a juncture 
with the Twenty-sixth Division, which was 
the right unit of the forces attacking on the 
left of the salient. The resistance was so 
slight that the operation partook of the nature 



1 86 Average Americans 

of a maneuver rather than a battle. Our 
losses were practically nil. A large number of 
prisoners were captured and a considerable 
amount of materiel. The reason for this was 
that the Germans had determined to abandon 
the position and were in full retreat when we 
attacked. They had been misinformed by 
their spies, however, and started their move- 
ment about twenty-four hours too late. 

The men had a fine time in this attack. 
While they had been in the Toul sector a high 
hill, called Mount Sec, behind the German 
lines, had given them a lot of trouble. From 
it the Germans had been virtually able to look 
into our trenches. In the attack they not 
only took this hill, but left it far in the rear. 
Our unit captured a German officers' mess, 
including the cook and a fine pig. They 
promptly made the cook kill the pig and pre- 
pare him for their dinner, which they thor- 
oughly enjoyed. 

At another time a German company kitchen 
came up in the night to one of our outposts 
to ask him directions. When they found out 



St. Mihiel and the Argonne 187 

their mistake it was too late, and they were 
promptly conducted to one of our very hungry 
companies. 

The value of the St. Mihiel operation to 
our army was considerable. It gave our 
staffs an opportunity to make mistakes which 
were not too terribly costly. We fell down 
particularly on the question of handling our 
road traffic. The artillery and the trains in 
many instances became hopelessly jammed on 
the largely destroyed road. Each unit com- 
mander with laudable desire to get forward 
would do anything to accomplish that pur- 
pose — double bank or cut across country. 
The result was, of course, a hopeless tangle. 
This alone Would have prevented us carrying 
on a further attack, as no army can run away 
from its echelons of supply. 

Immediately on the completion of the at- 
tacks the First Division, in company with a 
number of others, was withdrawn from the 
line and moved west by marching to a posi- 
tion of readiness for the Argonne offensive, 
which was to take place in a couple of weeks. 



1 88 Average Americans 

The march was made mainly by night, as 
every endeavor was being used to make a sur- 
prise attack. The troops bivouacked in the 
woods, keeping under cover during the day. 

The battle was a fierce one. During the 
first day the Americans made a clean break 
through, but the lack of training showed and 
they were unable to exploit their success prop- 
erly. The various units became dislocated and 
orders could not be transmitted. The men 
were gallant, but gallantry is no use when 
you do not get orders and when supplies do 
not come up. As a result the Germans were 
able to gather themselves, and what might 
have been a rout became a fierce rear-guard 
action which lasted for more than a month. 

The First Division was held in army reserve 
and thrown in to take a particularly hard bit 
of territory. They were in eleven days in all 
and took all their objectives. As a result 
they were cited individually by General Persh- 
ing in General Orders No. 201. This order — I 
believe the only one of its kind issued during 
the war — follows: 



St. Mihiel and the Argonne 189 

G. H. Q. 
American Expeditionary Forces, 

France, Nov. io, 191 8. 
General Orders 
No. 201. 

1 . The Commander in Chief desires to make of 
record in the General Orders of the American 
Expeditionary Forces his extreme satisfaction with 
the conduct of the officers and soldiers of the 
First Division in its advance west of the Meuse 
between October 4th and nth, 1918. During 
this period the division gained a distance of seven 
kilometers over a country which presented not 
only remarkable facilities for enemy defense but 
also great difficulties of terrain for the operation 
of our troops. 

2. The division met with resistance from ele- 
ments of eight hostile divisions, most of which 
were first-class troops and some of which were com- 
pletely rested. The enemy chose to defend its 
position to the death, and the fighting was always 
of the most desperate kind. Throughout the 
operations the officers and men of the division 
displayed the highest type of courage, fortitude, 
and self-sacrificing devotion to duty. In addition 
to many enemy killed, the division captured one 
thousand four hundred and seven of the enemy, 
thirteen 77-mm. field guns, ten trench mortars, and 
numerous machine guns and stores. 



190 Average Americans 

3. The success of the division in driving a 
deep advance into the enemy's territory enabled 
an assault to be made on the left by the neighbor- 
ing division against the northeastern portion of 
the Forest of Argonne, and enabled the First 
Division to advance to the right and outflank 
the enemy's position in front of the division on 
that flank. 

4. The Commander in Chief has noted in this 
division a special pride of service and a high state 
of morale, never broken by hardship nor battle. 

5. This order will be read to all organizations 
at the first assembly formation after its receipt. 
( 14790- A-306.) 

By Command of General Pershing: 

James W. McAndrew, 
Chief of Staff. 

Official: 

Robert C. Davis, 
Adjutant General. 

The losses again were very heavy, nearly as 
heavy as at Soissons. It was in this battle 
Lieutenant T. D. Amory was killed while 
making a daring patrol. Amory was a gallant 
young fellow, not more than twenty-two or 
twenty- three years of age. He had originally 



St. Mihiel and the Argonne 191 

been intelligence officer for my battalion and 
had been quite badly wounded by a shell 
fragment in the Montdidier sector. As soon 
as he was cured he reported back to the regi- 
ment and took up his old work as scout officer. 
When the division took over, contact had been 
lost with the enemy. A patrol was accordingly 
sent out at once, for it was possible that an 
attack would be ordered in the morning. 
Lieutenant Amory was given forty men and 
went out. Signal-corps men were put with 
him to carry a telephone. It turned out that 
the Germans were holding strong points rather 
than a continuous line of front. On account 
of this and the darkness he filtered through 
without finding them and unobserved by them. 
The first word his battalion commander re- 
ceived was a telephone message from the 
signal-sergeant, saying: "We have advanced 
about one and one half kilometers and there 
is no sign of the enemy. The Germans have 
opened on us from the right flank." Then: 
"They are firing on us from three sides. I 
believe we are surrounded." And, last: " Lieu- 



i9 2 Average Americans 

tenant Amory has just been shot through 
the head and killed." 

Captain Foster and Captain Wortley also 
were killed at this time, besides many other 
gallant officers and men. Foster when he 
died was but twenty-two years old. When he 
came over with the division, he was nothing 
but a curly-headed boy. In the year and a 
half that he spent in France he turned from 
a boy into a man. He was afraid of nothing 
and had a rarer virtue in that he was always 
in good spirits. He had been hit once before 
at Soissons. He had been platoon leader and 
adjutant. Later, on the death of the com- 
pany commander, Captain Frey, he had taken 
command of a company. He, like Lieutenant 
Amory, was shot through the head by a 
machine gun. 

Wortley was an older man and had always 
been ambitious to join the regular army. He 
had served an enlistment in the regulars and 
had been a sergeant. Later at the Leaven- 
worth School he had received his commission. 
Wortley also had been wounded at Soissons. 



St. Mihiel and the Argonne 193 

Major Youell described to me a personal 
incident of this battle, which illustrates very- 
well the dull leathery mind that everyone 
gets after a certain amount of bitter fighting 
and fatigue. As commander of the Second 
Battalion he had received orders for an attack. 
He was not sure of his objectives. He got 
out his very best prismatic compass, which he 
valued more than any of his other possessions, 
as it was virtually impossible to replace it, 
sighted carefully, determined the direction of 
the attack, ordered the advance, put the com- 
pass on the ground, and walked off, leaving it 
there. When he next thought of it the com- 
pass was gone for good. 

Another captain we had was thoroughly 

courageous personally, but he had one very 

bad fault. He could not keep his men under 

control. Once after an attack his battalion 

commander was checking up to see if the 

objectives were taken and all units in place. 

He found the objectives were taken all right, 

but that, in the instance of this one company, 

the company itself was missing! On the 
13 



i94 Average Americans 

objective was sitting simply the company 
commander and his headquarters group. The 
rest of the company had missed its direction 
advancing through a wood and got lost. 

I remember this same company commander 
in another action. We had been advancing 
behind tanks, which had all been disabled by 
direct fire from the Germans. I went forward 
to where he was lying with a handful of men 
by one of these tanks. I said to him, "Cap- 
tain, were is your company?" He said, "I 
don't know, sir; but the Germans are there." 
He knew where the enemy were and was per- 
fectly game to go on and attack them with 
his eight or nine men. 

Colonel Hjalmar Erickson was commander 
of the Twenty-sixth Infantry during this 
action. He was a fine troop leader and a 
powerful man physically. During a battle 
the higher command naturally want to know 
what is going on at the front. It is very 
difficult for the officer at the front to furnish 
these details; often he is busy, sometimes he 
knows nothing to tell. Once, during the first 



St. Mihiel and the Argonne 195 

Argonne battle, the higher command called 
upon Erickson. Nothing was happening, but 
Erickson was equal to the occasion. 

"Yes, yes, everything is fine. What has 
happened? Our heavies have just started 
firing and it sounds good," was Erickson's 
reassuring message. 

Meanwhile I had been given a Class B 
rating and detailed as an instructor at the 
school of the line at Langres. After I had 
been there a short while I saw an officer from 
the First Division and told him I was awfully 
anxious to get back and felt quite up to field 
work again. A few days after that General 
Parker called up some of the commanding 
officers in the college on the telephone. I had 
one obstacle to overcome. I still had to walk 
with a cane, and, although this did not really 
make any difference to me from a physical 
standpoint, it was a question if I could get 
the medical department to pass me as Class A. 
We decided that the best way to do was to 
take the bull by the horns and go anyhow. I 
said good-by to the college one night and went 



196 Average Americans 

with Major Gowenlock, of the division staff, 
directly back to the division. I was techni- 
cally A. W. O. L. for a couple of weeks, but they 
don't court-martial you for A. W. O. L. if you 
go in the right direction, and my orders came 
through all right. On reporting to General 
Frank Parker, who was commanding the divi- 
sion, he assigned me to the command of my 
own regiment. When my orders finally came to 
the school directing me to report to C. G., of 
the First Division, for assignment to duty, I 
was commanding the regiment in battle. 

At about this time three cavalry troopers 
reported to the Twenty-sixth Infantry. They 
said they came from towns where they had 
been on military police duty. They stated 
that they had heard from a man in a hospital 
that the First Division was having a lot of 
fighting and so they had gone A. W. 0. L. to 
join it. They were attached to one of the com- 
panies, and a letter was sent through regular 
channels saying that they were excellent men 
and we wanted their transfer to a combatant 
branch of the service. We phrased it this way in 



St. Mihiel and the Argonne 197 

order to tease one of our higher command who 
belonged to the cavalry. A long while later, 
as I recall, an answer came back directing me 
to send the men back to their outfit, but they 
were all either killed or wounded at that time. 

After the division was relieved from the 
Argonne it went into rest billets near the town 
of Ligny, there to rest and receive replace- 
ments before returning into the same battle. 
Advantage was taken of this brief period of rest 
to give leave to some of the enlisted personnel 
and officers. This was the first leave most of 
them had had since they had been in France. 
Captain Shipley Thomas took the men under 
his command to their area. He described to 
me on his return how on the way down all 
the men would talk about was : ' ' Do you re- 
member how we got that machine-gun nest? 
That was where McPherson got his." "Do 
you remember how Lieutenant Baxter and 
Sergeant Dobbs got those seventy-sevens by 
outflanking and surprising them?" 

By the time they had been at the Y. M. C. A. 
Leave Area twenty-four hours they had for- 



198 Average Americans 

gotten all this. For seven days they had a fine 
time and their point of view changed entirely. 
As the train carried them north through France, 
when they stopped at a station they would lean 
out of the windows and inveigle some unsus- 
pecting M. P. close to the train. They would 
ask him with much earnestness what it was like 
at the front, explaining to him meanwhile that 
they were members of the Arkansas Balloon 
Corps, and when he got near enough throw soda- 
water bottles at his head. Later an indignant 
epistle reached me demanding an explanation 
and directing "an investigation to fix the 
responsibility.',' A commanding officer should 
know a great many things unofficially, and 
in this case my knowledge was all of an un- 
official nature, so I was able with a clear 
conscience to indorse it back with the sugges- 
tion that they investigate some other unit. 

Captain J. B. Card, Captain Richards, and 
some other of the officers were given leave. 
They started immediately for Nice. While 
they were traveling down we received orders 
that we were to go back into the battle, so 



St. Mihiel and the Argonne 199 

wires were awaiting them when they got off 
the train to report back to their units imme- 
diately. They made a good connection and 
spent only three hours at Nice. They reported 
back smiling and thought it was a good joke 
on themselves. 

General C. P. Summerall had been promoted 
to the command of a corps and General Frank 
Parker given command of the division. Gen- 
eral Parker was also one of the First Division's 
own officers. Before getting the division he 
had in turn commanded the Eighteenth 
Infantry and the First Brigade. He had a 
fine theory for soldiering. Summarized briefly, 
it was that the way to handle troops was to 
explain to them, in so far as possible, all that 
was to take place and the importance of the 
actions of each individual man. He had all 
his officers out with the men as much as pos- 
sible. He had them all emphasize to the private 
the importance of his individual intelligent 
action. This is a fine creed for a commanding 
officer, as it helps to give him the confidence 
of his men. Obedience is absolutely necessary 



200 Average Americans 

in a soldier, but unintelligent obedience is 
not nearly as valuable as intelligent obedience 
given with confidence in the man who issues 
the order. It is intelligent comprehension of 
the aims of an order that lends most to its 
proper execution. 



CHAPTER X 



THE LAST BATTLE 



"The giant grows blind in his fury and spite, 
One blow on the forehead will finish the fight." 

Holmes. 

HARDLY had the new replacements, some 
1800 in all, learned to what company 
they belonged, when our definite orders 
reached us. The trucks arrived and we rattled 
off toward the front. We detrucked and 
bivouacked for a couple of days in a big 
wood while our supply trains came up. The 
weather, fortunately, was crisp and cool and 
bivouacking was really pleasant. What our 
mission was we did not know, but as we were 
to be in General SummeraH's corps we were 
sure there would be plenty of fighting to go 
around. 

General Summerall himself came and spoke 

to each of the infantry regiments. The regi- 

201 



202 Average Americans 

ment was formed in a three-sided square and 
he spoke from the blank side. 

Almost immediately our orders arrived to 
move up. As usual we moved at night. The 
weather repented of its gentleness and cold 
heavy rain started. The roads were gone, the 
nights black, the columns splashed through 
mud with truck trains, with supplies for the 
troops ahead of us, crisscrossing and jamming 
by us. We passed the barren zone that had 
been No Man's Land for four years and was 
now again France. 

Early in the morning in a heavy mist we 
reached another patch of woods just in rear 
of where the line was. Here we gained con- 
tact with the Second Division that was ahead 
of us. They attacked the same day and again 
we received orders to follow them. On this 
night the maps played us a trick, for a road well 
marked turned out to be a little wood trail. 
All night long we moved down it single file 
to get forward a bare seven kilometers. A 
wood trail in the rain is bad enough for the 
first man that moves over it, but it is almost 



The Last Battle 203 

impassable for the three thousandth man 
when his turn comes. We got through, how- 
ever, and by morning the regiment was in place. 
The road was clogged with a stream of trans- 
ports of all kinds — trucks, wagon trains, tanks, 
and tractors, double banked and stuck. Occa- 
sionally, passing by them on foot, you would 
hear some general's aide spluttering in his 
limousine at the delay and wet. 

Through this our supply train was brought 
forward by Captains Scott and Card and 
Lieutenant Cook with the uncanny ability to 
accomplish the seemingly impossible which had 
stood us in good stead many times. Indeed, 
the train beat the infantry and when we ar- 
rived, we found them there banked beside 
the road, with the kitchens smoking, and the 
food spreading a comforting aroma through the 
rain-rotted woods. Orders were received to 
march to Landreville. We gave the men hot 
chow and put the column in motion as soon 
as they had finished. The sun came out and 
dried us off and we felt more cheerful. 

Still following in the wake of the victorious 



204 Average Americans 

Second Division, we passed through the deso- 
late, war-battered little town of Landreville. 
There, to my intense astonishment, I suddenly 
came on my brother, Kermit, and my brother- 
in-law, Richard Derby, who was chief surgeon 
of the Second Division. My brother Kermit 
had transferred to the American army from 
the British, had finished his course at an 
artillery school, and was now reporting to the 
First Division for duty. Seeing them so 
unexpectedly was one of the most delightful 
surprises. 

We went into position at Landreville and 
sent out patrols, which immediately gained 
contact with the marines in our front, who 
were preparing to attack next day. 

That night my brother and I sat in a ruined 
shed, regimental headquarters, surrounded by 
dead Germans and Americans, and talked over 
all kinds of family affairs. 

Again the following night, as the Second 
Division's attack had been successful, we 
moved forward. Again it rained. Next morn- 
ing we were bivouacked in the Bois de la Folie, 



The Last Battle 205 

but before evening were on the march again 
to another position. By the time we had 
reached this position, orders came to move 
forward again and we went into position in 
woods just south of Beaumont. Here the 
Colonel of the Ninth Infantry and I had head- 
quarters together in an old farmhouse that 
had been used by the Germans as a prisoners' 
cage. It was surrounded by wire and filthy 
beyond description. 

Here we got orders that we were to take 
over from the division on the left of the 
Second Division and attack in the morning. 
By this time the troops had marched practi- 
cally five nights in succession and also two of 
the days. Speaking of this, there is a military 
phrase which has always irritated me. It 
appears in all accounts of big battles. It is, 
"At this point fresh troops were thrown into 
action." There is no such thing as "throwing 
fresh troops" into action. By the time the 
troops get into action they have marched night 
after night and are thoroughly tired. 

The correct phrase should be, "troops 



206 Average Americans 

that have suffered no casualties." For exam- 
ple, that night my three majors, Legge, 
Frazier, and Youell, all of them young men 
not more than twenty-eight years old, came 
in to get their orders for the attack. We all 
sat down on wooden benches in the cellar. 
Something happened which made it necessary 
for me to change part of my orders. Making 
the changes did not take more than five min- 
utes in all. By the time I was through, all three 
of them had fallen asleep where they sat. 

After receiving the orders, I got in touch 
with the Second Division, and I want to say 
that when the next war comes I hope my side 
partners will be of the same type. Colonel 
Robert Van Horn, an old friend of mine, 
was commanding the Twenty-third Infantry, 
which was to be on the right flank. I was to 
attack with two battalions in line and one in 
support, my right flank on Beaumont, my left 
following a road that led north to Mouzon. 
Together Van Horn and I worked out our 
plans and arranged for the connections we 
wished to make. He had been fighting then 



The Last Battle 207 

for a number of days, but was just as keen to 
continue as a schoolboy in a game of football. 

That night again sunny France justified her 
reputation and for the fifth day in succession 
it rained. The troops moved forward and 
with the easy precision of veterans found their 
positions, got their direction, and checked in 
as in place at the moment of attack. 

At 5.35 in a heavy mist they went over the 
top. The Hun had, by this time, lost all his 
fight and we advanced for seven or eight 
kilometers to our objectives, Mouzon and Ville 
Montry. By 6.00 in the evening the sector 
was cleared, the troops established on the 
objectives, and the advanced elements fighting 
in Mouzon. 

Two of the German prisoners who were 
brought back early this day, an officer and 
his orderly, were nothing more than boys. 
They said they had been retreating for days 
and that they were so tired that they had not 
woke up until some of the Americans had 
prodded them with a bayonet. 

It was in this attack that, among others, 



208 Average Americans 

one of the medical officers, Lieutenant Skil- 
lirs, was killed. Like most of our medical 
officers, he followed his work with absolute 
disregard for his personal safety. He was hit 
by a shell toward the end of the attack while 
crossing the shelled area to help some wounded. 

At 8 o'clock we received word that we 
were to withdraw from the sector we had 
taken and march into a position from which 
we should attack Sedan next morning. The 
Seventy-seventh Division was to extend its 
right and occupy the sector we were leaving. 
Word was sent to the majors to collect their 
commands and assemble them at a given 
point. All honor again to our supply com- 
pany. They were there close in the rear of us 
and worked forward food to the men. At this 
time, with the men as tired as they were, it 
was of vital importance. 

I received my detailed orders from General 
F. C. Marshall at a little half -burned farm. 

By 8 o'clock the officers and men, who had 
marched and fought without stopping for 
twenty-four hours, were again assembled 



The Last Battle 209 

and moving west on the Beaumont- St ornay 

road. All night long the men plowed like 

mud-caked specters through the dark, some 

staggering as they walked. Once we had to 

move single file through our artillery, which 

was to follow in our rear. Often we had 

to take detours, as the Germans had mined 

the road. At one place a bridge over a stream 

was gone and the whole division had to cross 

over single file. Everyone had reached the 

last stages of exhaustion. Captain Dye, a 

corking good officer, fainted on the march, lay 

unconscious in the mud for an hour, came to, 

and joined his company before the morning 

attack. Major Frazier, while riding at the 

head of his battalion, fell asleep on his horse 

and rolled off. 

As I rode up and down the column I watched 

the men. Most of them were so tired that 

they said but little. Occasionally, however, I 

would run on to some of the old men, laughing 

and joking as usual. I remember hearing a 

sergeant, who was closing the rear of one 

platoon, say, "Ooh, la, la!" 
14 



210 Average Americans 

"What is it, sergeant, aren't you getting 
enough exercise?" I said to him. 

"Exercise, is it, sir? It's not the exercise 
I'm worried with, but I do be afraid that them 
Germans are better runners than we are! 
Faith, to get them is like trying to catch a flea 
under your thumb." 

Another time I passed an old sergeant called 
Johnson, at one of the five-minute rests. 

"Sir," asked Johnson, "when do we hit 
'em?" 

"I'm not sure, sergeant," I said, "but I 
think about a kilometer and a half from 
here." 

"That's good," Johnson replied. "If we 
can once get them and do 'em up proper they 
will let us have a rest." 

Johnson voiced there the sentiments of 
the rank and file. They had been set a task 
and it never entered into their calculations 
that they could not do the task. They 
wanted to do it, do it well, and then have their 
rest. 

In the morning we passed through a French 



The Last Battle 211 

unit at Omicourt and started our attack. By- 
afternoon we were on the heights overlook- 
ing Sedan, where word reached us to halt our 
attack. Shortly after we were told to with- 
draw, turning over to the French. We found 
later that it was considered wise that the 
French should take Sedan on account of the 
large sentimental value attached to it because 
of the German victory there in the war of 
1870. 

I waited in the sector until the troops had 
checked back, and then followed them to 
Chemery, where we were to spend the night. 
When I arrived I found the three battalion 
commanders sleeping in the stalls of a stable. 
As I came in one sat up and said : "Sir, I never 
knew until this minute what a lucky animal a 
horse is." 

A characteristic incident of the new spirit 
occurred in this attack. Lieutenant Leek of 
E Company was assigned the task of 
occupying the town of Villemontry with a 
platoon. After severe hand-to-hand fighting 
on the streets he succeeded. The rapidity of 



212 Average Americans 

the attack prevented the Germans from carry- 
ing off some French girls with them. The town 
was under heavy fire and the runner who was 
sent with the message directing the withdrawal 
and the march on Sedan was killed before he 
reached them. After the relieving unit ar- 
rived a message was sent to Leek that his 
regiment had withdrawn. He replied that 
the First Division never gave up conquered 
ground and he would hold the town until he 
received word from his proper commander. 

The next day we moved to the south and 
east. The plan of the higher command, I 
have been informed, was to throw the First, 
Second, Thirty-second, and Forty-second Di- 
visions across the Meuse in an attack on Metz, 
to assign no objectives but to let the rivalry 
in the divisions determine the depth of the 
advance. 

All through the last ten days vague rumors 
had been reaching us concerning a proposed 
armistice. None of us really believed there 
was anything in them. This was largely on 
account of the fact that during the year and 



The Last Battle 213 

a half we had grown so accustomed to war 
that we could not imagine peace. Besides, 
we felt that terms that would be in any way 
acceptable to us would not be even given a 
hearing by the Germans. We felt also that 
we had them on the run and we wanted to 
go in and finish them. As a matter of fact, 
we didn't give much thought to it anyhow. 
We had almost as much as we could do finish- 
ing the job we had in hand. 

On the march one day I heard one man 
discussing with the other members of his 
squad. He finished his remarks by saying, 
"I hope those damned politicians don't spoil 
this perfectly good victory we are winning." 

As we were moving back a day later an 
engineer officer rode up to me from the rear 
and told me he had just come from Second 
Division headquarters, where they had an- 
nounced that the armistice had been signed 
and all hostilities were to cease at 11 o'clock 
that morning. I sent back word to the men. 
It was announced up and down the column 
and a few scattering cheers were all that 



214 Average Americans 

greeted it. I don't think it really got through 
their heads what had happened. I know it 
had not got through mine. 

That night we stopped in the Bois de la 
Folie, and for the first time the men began 
to realize what had happened. Fires were 
lit all over. Around them men were gathered, 
singing songs and telling stories. It was 
very picturesque: the battered woods, the 
flaming fires, and the brown, mud-caked sol- 
diers. The contrast was doubly great, as 
until that time no fires were lighted by the 
troops when anywhere near the front lines. 
German airplanes always came over and as 
the men expressed it, "laid eggs wherever they 
saw a light." 

The first thing that really brought it home 
to me personally was when a little military 
chauffeur came up through the dark and said, 
"Colonel, Mrs. Roosevelt is waiting in the car 
at the corner." 

I knew that no women had been anywhere 
near the front the day before. I realized 
that this really meant that the war was over. 



The Last Battle 215 

The car came up and skidded around in the 
deep mud. Mrs. Roosevelt was there in a 
pair of rubber boots. She had somehow 
managed to come because she wished to say 
good-by to me and return to our children in 
the United States now that the fighting was 
over. I went back with her some ten kilo- 
meters to a tent where some Y. M. C. A. men 
were giving out chocolates, crackers, etc. 

All the way back through the night the sky 
was lit by the fires of the men. On every side 
rockets were going up, like a Fourth of July 
celebration. Gas signals and barrage signals 
flashed over the tree tops. The whole thing 
seemed hardly possible. 

Although we had been there in France only 
a year and a half, it seemed as if the war had 
lasted interminably. It seemed as if it always 
had been and always would be with us. All 
our plans had been based on an indefinite 
continuation. I had been rather an optimist, 
and yet I did not consider the possibility of 
a cessation of hostilities before the following 
autumn. Much of the quaint philosophy of 



216 Average Americans 

the French had sunk into our hearts and insen- 
sibly became a part of us — the philosophy 
which had its creed in the expression Cest la 
guerre. To them and to us Cest la guerre 
had much the significance of "All in the day's 
work." Like them, we treated apres la guerre 
as something in the nature of "castles in 
Spain." 

So the war finished, so our part in the fight- 
ing came to an end; a page of the world's his- 
tory was turned and we moved south to Ver- 
dun to prepare for our march into conquered 
Germany. 



CHAPTER XI 

UP THE MOSELLE AND INTO CONQUERED 
GERMANY 

"Judex ergo cum sedebit 
Quidquid latet, apparebit 
Nil, inultum remanebit." 

Celano. 

•"THE Third Army, which was to march into 
Germany as the army of occupation, was 
all in place on the 1 5th of November. My regi- 
ment was bivouacked in what had once been 
a wood, northeast of shell-shattered Verdun. 
The bleakest of bleak north winds whistled over 
the hilltops, whirling the gray dust in clouds. 
The men huddled around fires or burrowed 
into cracks in the hillside. Here we prepared 
as well as we could for our move forward. 

Before dawn on the 17th of November, the 
infantry advanced in two parallel columns. 

By sunrise we were over the German lines and 

217 



218 Average Americans 

the brown columns were winding down the 
white, dusty roads through villages long beat- 
en out of the semblance of human habitation 
by the shells. Gazing back down the column, 
the thought that always struck uppermost 
was the realization of strength. The infantry 
column moves slowly, but the latent power in 
the close mass of marching men is very impres- 
sive. The only thing I know which compares 
with it in suggestion of power is a line of great 
gray dreadnaughts lunging across the water. 

At one village a young French soldier, who 
had been riding on a bicycle by our column, 
stopped sadly before three crumbling walls. 
It was all that was left of his home. His 
father, the mayor of the village, had lived 
there. His mother had died in Germany and 
he did not know what had become of his father. 

By night we were out of the uninhabited 
parts and were reaching the freed French vil- 
lages. Here we found starving men, women, 
and children whom we helped out from our 
none-too-plentiful rations. These people were 
pathetic. They seemed to have lost the 



Conquered Germany 219 

power to rejoice. They looked at us from 
their doors with lackluster eyes and apparent 
indifference. One woman told me that the 
Germans as they left her house had told her 
they would be back soon. I asked her if she 
believed it, and she simply shrugged her 
shoulders. 

Next morning we were on the march again. 
All day long, past our advancing columns, 
streamed the prisoners whom the Germans had 
been working in the coal mines. They were 
French, Italian, Russian, and Rumanian, des- 
perately emaciated for the most part and still 
wearing their old uniforms. Sometimes they 
dragged behind them little carts containing 
the possessions of two or three of them. 
Often I stopped them and questioned them, 
but whether they were French or not they 
seemed to have one idea, and one only — to 
put as many miles between them and Germany 
as possible. 

We had sent back to where our baggage was 
stored while we were at Verdun and brought 
up our colors and our band. Now we put 



220 Average Americans 

them at the head of the column and went 
forward with band playing and colors flying. 

The farther we got from where the front 
line had been, the better was the condition 
of the inhabitants. Now we began to see the 
first signs of rejoicing. News would reach 
the authorities in villages that we were com- 
ing some time before we arrived. They would 
throw arches of flowers over the streets 
through which we marched. Groups of little 
girls would run by the side of the column, 
giving bouquets to the men. Cheering 
crowds would gather on the sides of the 
road. 

The doughboy had a beautiful time. The 
doughboy loves marching to music, with flags 
flying and the populace cheering. He is very 
human and is fond of showing off. For some 
reason or other there is a current belief in this 
country that the average American does not 
like parades, decorations, etc. This is just 
bosh. The average American is just as keen 
for such things as anyone else. He likes to 
put on a pretty ribbon and come home and 



Conquered Germany 221 

be admired by the young ladies. I know I 
like to put on my decorations for my wife. 

In every little town where we spent the 
night a ceremony of some sort took place. 
Generally the townspeople made us an Ameri- 
can flag and presented it to us. I have some 
of these flags stowed away at this moment. 
They were made with the help of old diction- 
aries. Sometimes these dictionaries were very 
old and the American flag of one hundred 
years ago would be the one copied. At one 
village we were presented with a flag with 
fifty stars. The donor explained that he had 
been in the United States and knew we had 
forty-eight and that the two extra were for 
Alsace and Lorraine. 

Once, while we were at mess in the evening, 
with great ceremony it was announced that 
a committee of young ladies desired to wait 
on me. I bowed to the girdle and said, 
"Will they come in? " They trooped in, peas- 
ant girls from fourteen to twenty years old, 
dressed in their Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes 
and headed by the mayor's daughter. They 



222 Average Americans 

had a flag with them. First, one of them 
made an elaborate speech, in which we were 
hailed as the sons of Lafayette and George 
Washington, a slight historical inaccuracy. 
Then I replied, calling upon the names of 
Joan of Arc, Henry of Navarre, and others, 
and then the spokeslady, to the intense delight 
of my staff, stepped forward and kissed me 
on both cheeks. At another time a large, cor- 
pulent, much-bewhiskered mayor endeavored 
to enact the same ceremony, but forewarned 
is forearmed, and I evaded him. 

In a short time we came to the Duchy of 
Luxembourg and marched over the border. 
Everywhere here also we were met with 
open arms. The streets were jammed as we 
marched through the villages. All the world 
and his wife were there and greeted us as 
"Comrades glorious" and "Victors." 

We sent forward, as was customary, a detail 
of officers to make sure that billeting accom- 
modations were forthcoming and that every- 
thing would be as comfortable as possible for 
the men. When I arrived, slightly in advance 



Conquered Germany 223 

of the troops, the first thing I saw was a pro- 
cession of townfolk approaching. At its head 
was a band which might, for all the world, have 
come out of the comic opera. Following the 
band were pompous gentlemen in frock coats 
and top hats, carrying bouquets of gorgeous 
flowers done up with ribbons, and making up 
the body of the procession were people of every 
age, both sexes, and every grade in society. I 
realized they were heading for me, and with 
great dignity descended from the dinky little 
side car in which I had been traveling. Major 
Legge and Lieutenant Ridgely here joined me 
and explained that a ceremony of welcome 
was to take place, and I was to represent the 
United States! We three lined up solemnly 
while the Luxembourgers formed a semicircle 
around us. The ceremony was, first, the pres- 
entation speech; second, the keys of the city 
and armfuls of bouquets, and, third, a cheer for 
America ; and then the band played. We none 
of us knew the Luxembourg national anthem, 
but felt that this must be it, so we stood at 
attention with great solemnity and saluted 



224 Average Americans 

while it was sounding. When it was finished 
the mayor started it off again with a cheer 
for France and the same supposedly national 
anthem. Again we stood at attention. We 
went through this same ceremony for six of 
the Allies, when fortunately the troops came 
up and terminated it. Later I found that the 
tune they played and to which we had been 
rendering the formal compliment was the air 
of a popular song. The warm welcome would 
have impressed me more had I not been certain 
it had been accorded equally to the Germans 
when they marched through. 

Meanwhile the Eighteenth Infantry of our 
division had passed on our left flank through 
the city of Luxembourg. That day I ran down 
with a couple of officers to watch them parade. 
It was the first time I had ever been in Luxem- 
bourg. The city is very picturesque. It is 
built on the side of a rocky gorge, and on one 
jutting pinnacle of rock are the remains of 
the feudal castle where a medieval emperor 
of Germany was born. The fete amused me 
very much. I felt as if I were living in George 



Conquered Germany 225 

Barr McCutcheon's Graustark. The Luxem- 
bourg army was drawn up to receive our troops, 
all the men being present, 150 sum total. 
What they lacked in numbers they made up 
in gorgeousness. Never have I seen such 
beautiful uniforms, so many colors, so much 
gold lace, and such absurdly antiquated rifles. 
The populace had a beautiful time. They are 
mercantile by temperament. They realized 
that a reign of plenty was coming; that the 
American goose that lays the golden eggs 
would be in their midst and that money would 
flow as the changeless current of their own 
Moselle River. 

A couple of days' march farther and we 
reached the banks of the Moselle. Here we 
spent four or five days while the troops cleaned 
up and rested in three small towns. The regi- 
mental band played for different units every 
day. Everything moved smoothly. The in- 
habitants were gentle and kindly. Indeed, 
they were so effective in their kindness that 
one of the second battalion headquarters cooks, 

called ' ' Chops, ' ' came to grief. First, he drank 

15 



226 Average Americans 

all of their wine he could get, then, in an in- 
spired spirit of generosity, cooked and turned 
over to his new friends the turkey which, with 
much labor, had been secured for the officers' 
Thanksgiving dinner. His generosity was 
sadly misunderstood by his commanding offi- 
cer, for he was returned to duty with the mule 
train from which he had come. 

On the fifth of December we resumed the 
march and crossed the Moselle into conquered 
Germany. From this time on a new element 
was added to the chances of campaigning. 
Our maps were perfectly impossible. You 
never could tell where bridges were and where 
there were simply ferries. Once we ran our 
column directly into a pocket. The map 
showed what looked like a bridge. We were 
not allowed to scout ahead, and the inter- 
preter's questions seemed to confirm its exist- 
ence. When we got there we found a ferry 
that accommodated only sixteen men at a 
time and we had to double on our tracks. 
On these maps, also, the roads all looked good. 
The first day's march in Germany we nearly 



Conquered Germany 227 

lost the supply train on account of this, as a 
seemingly good highway ended in a marsh. 

That night we billeted for the first time in 
German territory. Regimental headquarters 
were in the country house of a German officer. 
On the news of our advance he had fled farther 
north, but, with the characteristic affectation 
of his class, telephoned, on our arrival, saying 
he regretted that he would not be there to 
receive us and hoped that we would be com- 
fortable. Next morning he telephoned again, 
sending a message to the effect that if any of 
his servants had not done everything for our 
comfort would we please report the matter to 
him immediately in order that he might punish 
the offender. 

All the next day we moved up the banks of 
the winding Moselle through Treves, where 
relics of the old Roman buildings frowned 
down on us as we passed. At night we stopped 
in another German house, from which the 
German officer had not fled. He was a lieu- 
tenant colonel and had waited to receive us, 
prepared to be butler or anything we demanded. 



228 Average Americans 

A real indication of the character of the 
German soldier was given by the terror of the 
women at our approach. It was clear that 
they expected any outrage. On account of 
this, on arriving in each town, when I would 
call the burgomaster to give him the instruc- 
tions concerning the behavior of the towns- 
people, I would finish up by directing him to 
announce to all women and children that they 
need have no fear concerning the actions of 
any American soldier, that we were Americans, 
not Germans. I had my interpreter see that 
it was given out in this form. 

Day after day we followed the river or made 
short cuts inland. As we marched along, on 
hilltops on either side, silhouetted against the 
sky, austere and dignified, were the crumbling 
brown-rock towers of medieval castles. These 
castles were destroyed more than two centu- 
ries before by Louis XIV as he marched by 
the same route. On either side of the river 
the slopes rose abruptly. They were covered 
with vineyards, apparently growing from the 
brown shale. Once, when we passed through 



Conquered Germany 229 

the city of Berncastle, in the early morning, 
when the mist choked the valley, I looked up 
and saw on the peak that overhung the town, 
touched by the morning sun, the old keep 
framed in the white mist like a cameo set in 
mother-of-pearl. Time and again some Hun 
farmer would stop me and take me through a 
cow-shed to see the marble remains of some 
Roman bath or villa, the name of whose owner 
had long since vanished in the mists of time. 

An odd incident of this march occurred 
when Lieutenant Barrett was ordered by me 
to go and instruct a German soldier we were 
passing concerning certain of our regulations. 
When Barrett reported back, he told me the 
man had come from his own home town in 
Indiana. 

One thing that struck us all as we left France 
and reached Germany was the number of chil- 
dren. In France children are rare. Each com- 
munity you passed you felt was composed of 
grown people. In Germany the streets were 
full of them — healthy-looking little rascals, 
pink-cheeked and well-nourished, wearing di- 



230 Average Americans 

minutive gray-blue uniforms like those of the 
German soldier. Little machine gunners, the 
men used to call them, for they looked like 
so many small replicas of those men we had 
been killing and who had killed us. Imme- 
diately upon the proclamation going out that 
the children would be in no way molested, 
these little rascals swarmed over everything. 
Nothing could satisfy their curiosity. 

After weaving our way up the river valley 
and over the hills, one early December morn- 
ing we found ourselves winding down from the 
surrounding hills toward the Rhine. As we 
swung around a rocky corner, the whole 
panorama lay before us — the gables and 
steeples of the town of Boppard with, as a 
background, the broad, undisturbed silver 
Rhine. On we wound down the rocky slope 
into the city, the flag flying at the head of the 
column. That night I formed the entire regi- 
ment in line on the terraced water front facing 
the river and, with the band playing The Star- 
Spangled Banner, stood retreat. 

We waited here a day and then marched 



Conquered Germany 231 

down the river to Coblenz. On this march 
we passed through one village, with old gates, 
little jutting houses carved and painted in 
bright colors, unchanged sixteenth-century 
Europe. Next was another village, factory 
towers smoking, great brick buildings filled 
with machinery, plain little board houses for 
the workmen, the epitome of modernism. 

The night of December 12th we billeted at 
Coblenz. Next morning, at seven o'clock, 
the First Division in two columns crossed the 
Rhine, the first of the American troops. As 
the head of the column reached the center of 
the bridge and I looked at massive Ehrenbreit • 
stein and up and down the historic river, I 
felt this truly marked the end of an era. 

Two days more brought us to the end 
of the bridgehead, where we were to take 
up our position. Division headquarters were 
in quite a large town called Montabaur, a 
name supposed to have been brought back with 
the early crusaders, i. e., Mount Tabor. Two 
castles overlooked the town, one in ruins, the 
other still used as an administrative building 



232 Average Americans 

by the town authorities. The regiment was 
scattered through the surrounding small 
country villages. 

Quarters for the men were good in compari- 
son with what they had been used to. We 
were able to get washing facilities, food came 
up regularly, and now, for the first time, proper 
equipment. The men really enjoyed them- 
selves for the first week or so. We had no 
trouble with fraternization. Our men had 
seen too many of their friends and relations 
killed to care to have anything to do with 
their late enemies. Like true Americans, 
they played with the children and flirted with 
the women whenever opportunity offered, but 
I never remember seeing any attempt to be- 
come familiar with the men. 

Now that the work of fighting was over, up- 
permost in everyone's mind was the thought, 
"When do we get home?" The minuteman 
wanted to go back to ordinary life and his 
family. Time and again when I first returned 
to this country people would ask me what I 
thought the soldiers thought of this or that 



Conquered Germany 233 

public question. I always replied truthfully 
that the men were so busy thinking about 
what a good place the United States was, how 
much better in their opinion than any of the 
European countries they had been to, that all 
they were interested in was, when will that 
transport leave. 

In January I was ordered to Paris on sick 
leave. Shortly after, I sailed for home on the 
Mauretania and saw the mass of New York 
lift on the horizon, where my three children, 
who had practically forgotten me, were waiting. 
So ends the active participation of an average 
American with average Americans in the war. 






CHAPTER XII 

AFTERWARDS 

" When old John Burns, a practical man, 
Shouldered his rifle, unbent his brows, 
And then went back to his bees and cows." 

Bret Harte. 

'"THE war is important to us in this country 
for what it accomplished directly : name- 
ly, it crushed the brutal military power of Ger- 
many, which threatened our ideal of civiliza- 
tion. We are, however, primarily civilians, 
not soldiers, and we are now going back to 
our "jobs," whatever they may be. For this 
reason I consider more important and more 
far-reaching than the military victory the les- 
sons that it taught us and the effects it had 
on our citizens who participated. We must 
profit by these lessons and preserve the im- 
pulses that have been given to our people. If 
we do this the war will not simply be history, 

234 



Afterwards 235 

a past issue, a good job well finished; it will 
be a force that will be felt in this country 
through the generations to come for right- 
eousness and a truer Americanism. 

The first and most evident lesson taught 
us was the effect of being ill-prepared. We 
permitted in the past a policy which substi- 
tuted fine words for fine deeds, the pen and 
the voice for action. We, in the past, con- 
tented ourselves with sounding platitudes; 
we allowed our sloth to approve them under 
the misnomer of idealism. We allowed our- 
selves to be switched from the hard realities 
by glittering phrases. We sowed the wind 
and we reaped the whirlwind. As a result 
hundreds of millions have been spent to no 
purpose and blood has been shed unnecessarily. 
Those who were in this country saw daily the 
evidences of inefficiency and the coincident 
waste of the public moneys. Those who went 
to Europe saw blood shed unnecessarily 
through lack of supplies, inefficient organiza- 
tion, and untrained leadership. At no times 
did our equipment compare favorably with 



236 Average Americans 

that of either of our major Allies. At all times 
in Europe we were to a greater or less extent 
equipped by them. 

Much as we are to blame for permitting 
these conditions to arise in the past, we will 
be doubly so if in the future we let half-baked 
theorists and sinister demagogues lead us 
again into a like neglect. We will be guilty 
of bringing down upon the heads of our chil- 
dren the same punishments that we have suf- 
fered. Indeed, we will probably bring down 
more upon them, as we by pure good fortune es- 
caped the maximum penalties that were due us. 

It was our good fortune that we were per- 
mitted, under the sheltering forces of the Allies, 
slowly to prepare ourselves after we had de- 
clared war, until, after about a year, we were 
in a condition which enabled us to join in the 
conflict. Next time in all probability there 
will be neither England nor France standing 
between us and the enemy armies and giving 
us nearly a year leeway before we have to 
fight. I am proud to be an American, I am 
proud of the actions of the citizens of the 



Afterwards 237 

country, I am proud to be a citizen of a coun- 
try which has fought a war, not with the aid 
of, but in spite of, its national administration. 
My pride in the actions of the rank and file 
of the country is offset only by my shame at 
being represented in the world by the present 
administration. 

As is usually the case, those who are respon- 
sible in a large measure for conditions have 
suffered least. The average American man 
or woman has borne the brunt and paid the 
price. Those nearest and dearest to the men 
mostly responsible have been, like the Kaiser's 
sons, too valuable to risk near the battle. A 
prominent Socialist deputy of France who 
had advocated disarmament went with the 
first troops. He was wounded, and when 
dying said he was thankful it had been per- 
mitted him to atone with his life for his errors 
in the past. I admire a man of that type of 
honesty and courage. 

Honor where honor is due. Honor to the 
people of the United States for their actions 
after the beginning of this war. 



238 Average Americans 

Blame where blame is due. Blame to the 
citizens of the United States for their easy 
indolence which permitted them to support 
for their high offices men who neither thought 
straight nor were manly enough to share in 
the penalties for their mistakes. 

We had the lesson of unpreparedness illus- 
trated so that we all can understand it. We 
must not now content ourselves with admit- 
ting we were wrong. That does not get us 
any further forward. We must adopt meas- 
ures to see that it does not occur again. The 
policy that I believe is necessary to this end 
is compulsory training. This is not, to my 
mind, simply a military question. It is an 
educational question, educational in the broad- 
est sense of the term. The question of most 
vital importance to a democracy, and for 
which we always work, is to create equal op- 
portunity for every man and woman ; to raise 
in every way possible the type of the average 
citizen. It is from this point of view that I 
believe most strongly in universal training. 

We have adopted in this war the policy of 



Afterwards 239 

compulsory military service. We have used 
it as a military war-time measure. To get the 
peace-time economic value we should have its 
complement, compulsory training in time of 
peace. One of the obstacles to this, in the 
mind of the average citizen, is the creation of 
a military caste. This is no doubt a danger, 
and a real danger, but it is not an insurmount- 
able danger. In France and in Switzerland 
it has been surmounted. There is no military 
caste in either country. There is no desire 
for war among the citizens of these countries. 
No one can say that France by her aggressive 
action drove Germany to the war. No one 
can say that on account of military training 
Switzerland plunged into the war. The first 
country saved herself from the domination of 
the German military caste by compulsory 
training. The second country by the same 
means saved herself entirely from war, for 
unquestionably Germany chose Belgium to 
rape on account of her defenselessness. Both 
France and Switzerland are democracies, real 
democracies in deed and thought. 



240 Average Americans 

This danger of fostering a military caste, 
in my opinion, can be met by a proper han- 
dling of the scheme. The whole matter of 
training should be directly under the control 
of a general staff. This general staff should 
not be composed, as in Germany, simply of 
military men. Military training, to my mind, 
is only a part of the training necessary. On 
the general staff the military should be simply 
an element. In addition to them there should 
be prominent educators, representatives of 
labor, prominent employers of labor, repre- 
sentatives of the farming interests, and mem- 
bers of our legislative bodies, the House and 
Senate. Such a staff would prohibit once and 
for all the question of a military caste. Such 
a staff would obtain the correct balance be- 
tween the purely military and the obviously 
more important educational side. The com- 
plicated adjustments of interests would be 
safeguarded. The economic question would 
be properly handled. 

Some of the benefits are obvious. First, 
when the country is called upon to defend it- 



Afterwards 241 

self, competent, trained men will step forward 
into the ranks. Over and above them will be 
a mechanism conserving the sacrifices, mak- 
ing possible the just reward in victory of gal- 
lantry and self-sacrifice. Your boy will go 
out and you will feel that what can be done 
will be done. You go yourself and you know 
you will get a show for your white alley. You 
don't mind sitting into a game where there 
is an even break, but you hate to be forced to 
draw cards when you know they are stacked 
against you. 

Second, the physical welfare of our young 
men would be immeasurably helped. Let us 
face the cold facts. In this war nearly half 
of the men of military age were refused admis- 
sion to the service for physical defects. They 
were below par from the standpoint of the 
physician. Compulsory training should be 
organized in such a way as to pay particular 
attention to just this feature. No man would 
be exempt from compulsory training on ac- 
count of physical defects. Special organiza- 
tions should be created to handle men of this 
16 



242 Average Americans 

kind. Specialists should be put in charge. 
These specialists year after year would devote 
their entire time to working with men of just 
this kind and would add enormously to the 
country economically by this work. 

Third. The knowledge of sanitation and 
simple hygienic rules, to be concrete, the care 
of teeth, the feet, the digestion, and a thousand 
and one things of this nature, should be taught 
to the many men who up to this time would 
have had no opportunity to learn. For the 
person who lives where every modern con- 
venience surrounds him it is difficult to believe 
the conditions which exist in sections of the 
country. Let him go to the poor sections of 
any great city, let him go to the mountain 
districts of Tennessee or of North Carolina. 
He will see at once that the men from these 
districts will be infinitely benefited by this 
education. 

Fourth. The democratization would be 
very beneficial to all alike. All would receive 
the same treatment, and all classes, all grades 
in society, would be mixed. The educational 



Afterwards 243 

value from this alone would be very great. 
Everyone would get new ideas, a broader 
outlook on life, and a more complete under- 
standing of this country. Our public schools 
do not embrace all classes and do not cover 
the situation as generally as they should. It 
is a rare thing for the sons of the wealthy to 
go to the public schools. Compulsory training 
would be a very real benefit to them. 

To sum up, from an economic standpoint 
alone, compulsory training would be of untold 
benefit. The economic unit of the community 
is the individual. By training and develop- 
ing the individual you develop the economic 
assets. The small loss in time from a money- 
earning aspect would be ten times compen- 
sated by the increased efficiency after training. 
From a moral standpoint the individual would 
be broadened by contact, trained in funda- 
mentals and self-discipline, and have one of the 
surest foundations of clean thought and clean 
action, a healthy body. So much for the 
lesson of unpreparedness and what I believe 
we should do to remedy it. 



244 Average Americans 

One of the first effects on the men who 
served was democratization. By the draft 
call all classes and grades of society were 
drawn into the service. After reaching the 
service, in so far as possible they were ad- 
vanced into positions of responsibility without 
fear or favor. The effort was directed toward 
finding the men most suited for the individual 
job. The result was, in most instances, as 
close a reproduction of a real democracy as 
is possible. 

In my regiment there were many instances 
of this fact. One of my lieutenants, a gallant 
young fellow, was a waiter in civilian life, a 
captain was a chauffeur. On the other hand, 
many men serving in the ranks came from 
professions ranking high in the scale in civilian 
life. 

A lieutenant once spoke to me after an 
action saying that when he was leading his 
platoon back from the battle one of his pri- 
vates asked him a question. The question 
was so intelligent and so well thought out 
that the lieutenant said to him: "What were 



Afterwards 245 

you before the war?" The reply was, "City 
editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer." 

Another private, serving as a runner in one 
of the company headquarters, was an ex-state 
senator from the State of Washington. These 
are isolated instances of what was taking place 
the army over — the waiter and chauffeur as 
officers and the lawyer and newspaper editor 
as privates. Ability to take responsibility 
in the present, not previous conditions, was 
what they were judged by. Surely associa- 
tions of this sort will breed sympathy and 
understanding for the future. Surely these 
will aid the country to approach its problems 
without class bias. 

Another effect was the idea of service to 
the country. To most of us, up to the time 
of the war, the country was a rather indefinite 
affair which had done something for us and 
which we expected to do more for us in the 
future. We had given but little thought to 
what we should do for the country. During 
the war every man in the service did some- 
thing for his country. He now is in the posi- 



246 Average Americans 

tion of a man who has bought a share of stock 
in a company. He is interested in seeing the 
country run right and is willing to give more 
service. The idea that we must endeavor to 
approach in the United States is to create a 
condition where as close to our entire popula- 
tion as possible has a vested interest in the 
country. In a certain way this has been 
supplied to the service men by what they 
have done for the country. 

The most important effect, to my mind, 
was the Americanization. Those who served 
became straight Americans, one hundred per 
cent. Americans and nothing else. 

The regiment was composed of as good a 
cross section of the United States as you could 
get. The men came from all sections of the 
country and from all walks of life. 

Selected at random from men who one time 
or another served at my headquarters are the 
following: Sergeants Braun, Schultz, Cramer, 
and Corporal Schwarz were born and edu- 
cated in Germany, and no gallanter or better 
Americans fought in our army. Sergeant 



Afterwards 247 

Braun was awarded the Distinguished Service 
Cross. Corporal Schwarz gave his life. 

Sergeant Samari and Privates Belacca, 
Kalava, and Rano were born in Italy. Samari 
particularly distinguished himself by his gal- 
lantry, although all were gallant. 

The Sergeants Murphy, mainstays of their 
particular organizations; Hennessy, of gallant 
memory; Leonard, Magee, and O'Rourke were, 
I believe, born in Ireland. All of the men 
reflected credit on this, their country. 

Sergeant Hansrodoc, born in Greece, was 
promoted from private and served from be- 
ginning to end. 

Sergeants Masonis, Crapahousky, and 
Zablimisky were born in Poland. 

Sergeant Mosleson and Privates Brenner 
and Drabkin were of Jewish extraction. One 
of them is dead; each of the others has been 
twice wounded. 

Sergeants Major Lamb and Sneaton and 
Corporals Brown and Glover were of straight 
English extraction. Corporal Le Bceuf is of 
French-Canadian extraction. These are only 



248 Average Americans 

some of the names that occur to me. In the 
regiment at large the range was greater. 

All of these men were straight Americans 
and nothing else. All of these men thought 
of themselves as Americans. Once I heard one 
of the men in conversation outside my head- 
quarters. He had been born in a foreign 
country. He didn't like the way that country 
was doing in the war. He alluded to the citi- 
zens of that country, the country of his birth, 
as "them cold-footed rascals." It never 
even occurred to him that there was anything 
funny in this. He thought of himself as an 
American, the men to whom he was talking 
thought of him as an American. 

An excellent soldier born in Germany was 
brought back to me one day as we were ad- 
vancing into the lines. The officer in charge 
reported that the man had been caught talk- 
ing to German prisoners, which was something 
strictly forbidden. He appeared before me. 
I knew him to be a good sort and said to him, 
"What is the matter, how did this come 
about? " He said, "Well, sir, I know I should 



Afterwards 249 

not have done it and I won't do it again, but 
I suddenly saw in that batch of prisoners some- 
one from the town where I was born." This 
man was killed in action shortly afterward 
fighting for this country. 

I have been told of a leave train sent to 
Italy with American soldiers born in Italy on 
it in order that they might see their people. 
Doubt was expressed in the minds of the 
higher command as to whether it was an advis- 
able move, inasmuch as it was thought prob- 
able that many of the men would overstay 
their leave or possibly try to desert and stay 
there. Not one man out of the 1200 did 
either. An officer who talked with these men 
on their return said that conversations ran 
much like this: "Cipiloni, have a fine time on 
your leave ? " " Yes, sir. " " See your family ? ' ' 
"Yes, sir." "Get back in time all right?" 
"Yes, sir, got back to the train fourteen hours 
before it left, sir. I was afraid, sir, if I missed 
this train, I might get left behind when the 
division started for home." 

When replacements came to us, some of 



250 Average Americans 

them could not even speak English. After 
they had been with the troops two or three 
months the same men would not only be 
speaking English, but would speak it by 
preference. I have seen two Italians, born 
in the same district in Italy, laboriously con- 
versing with one another in English rather 
than use the tongue to which they were born, 
with which they were naturally much more 
familiar. 

From these and many other reasons, the 
army is the least of this country's fears as far 
as Bolshevism and its kindred anarchies are 
concerned. All over the country you will 
find the service men keen to put down demon- 
strations of this sort. They are keen of their 
own accord, not prompted by anyone. The 
other day I was in a city where a Bolshevist 
meeting had been broken up by some service 
men. I knew one of the men who was con- 
cerned in this. I asked him how it occurred. 
He said. "Why, sir, it was this way. I was 
talking to some of the fellows down at the 
W. C. C. S. and a guy says to us, 'They've 



Afterwards 251 

got a red -flag meeting on for to-night.' I said 
to some of the men, 'That ain't the flag we 
know anything about, or fought for. Let's 
go down and bust them birds up.'" 

The service man feels that this is his coun- 
try. His first and foremost concern is for 
the United States. He wants the institutions 
of this country to stand. He has given him- 
self, and where one has given of one's self the 
interest is deepest. He has bought a share 
of stock of the United States. As a stock- 
holder he intends to do what he can to see 
that the concern is run properly. 

In order to keep alive and active this spirit 
of sturdy loyalty, a vested interest of some 
type obtained by his own labor should be 
aimed at for every one of as many citizens as 
possible. This country will have to move 
forward with a program of sane, constructive, 
carefully thought-out liberalism. 

It may be necessary in doing this to modify 
or change certain things in this community 
in the future, but the service man, I believe, 
intends, as far as he is able, to see that those 



252 Average Americans 

changes and modifications are carried out in 
such a way as will not destroy or injure the 
national fabric and institutions. 

Again, first, last, and always, the service 
man is an American ! 



THE END 



A Selection from the 
Catalogue of 

C. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



Complete Catalogues sent 
on application 



"Wade in, Sanitary !" 

The Story of a Division Surgeon 
in France 



By 
Richard Derby 

Lt.-Coi. M. C, U. S. A., Division Surgeon, Second Division 

This is a surgeon's story of the war — 
of that life and death humanly dramatic 
portion of the war in which the doctors 
in khaki played their great part. 

The book is far more than a mere ac- 
count of war experiences. It is the first 
complete and authoritative picture of the 
struggle from the surgeon's side. Though 
non-technical in style and thoroughly 
popular, it points out many of the lessons 
of the war from the medical standpoint 
of interest to every physician and every 
thinking citizen. 

To after the war literature the book is 
a highly valuable addition of absorbing 
interest. 



The Yankee in the 
British Zone 

By 

Captain Ewen G. MacVeagh 

and 

Lieutenant Lee D. Brown 



How did Tommy Atkins and the Yank 
get on? How did they impress each 
other? What did they learn about each 
other? 

That is what this book answers. It is 
not a war book ; it is rather a study in 
the psychology of the average man, Brit- 
ish and American; and it is the first 
intimate story of the Anglo-American 
relations. 

Written by tv/o trained observers it 
sets forth a wealth of anecdotes, many 
grotesquely funny, and illustrative "hu- 
man interest" stories and incidents. 



"I WAS THERE" 

WITH THE YANKS 
IN FRANCE 



By 
C Le Roy Baldridge 

300 sketches made on the spot while 
the author was a camion driver with the 
French Army, and later after he had 
joined the A. E. F. He was also the 
official artist of The Stars and Stripes. 
"Not the least of the paper's achieve- 
ments, " says the N. Y. Eve. Post, "is 
the repute it won for an excellent artist 
—Mr. Baldridge." 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

New York London 



The Story 

of the 

American Legion 

By 
Lieut. George S. Wheat 

12°. 13 Illustrations 

First of a most important series, which 
will contain from year to year a complete 
record of the "G. A. R. of the Great 
War." This first volume treats fully of 
the original formation of an organization 
that is potentially the most far-reaching 
influence in America to-day. 

G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York London 



W 88 




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